Airbending Ninja
by PSaid
Summary: Naruto travels to the world of Avatar and merges his soul with Aang. Now he has to master the four elements and save the world. Rated M for future chapters. Aang/Harem
1. Boy in the ice

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: This is my first attempt at uploading a fanfic. At this time I have only a general ideer of where I want this story to go so updates will be sporadic at best, since I will need inspiration to push the story forward. I am also writing other fanfics though with those I will hold out uploading until I reach a fitting stopping point, so don't expect to see those anytime soon. I hope that the story will be enjoyable.

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><p>Naruto had finally managed to keep his promise. Sasuke had rejoined the leaf, though the price had been Killer Bees capture. Naruto and his friends had rushed to the cave where 'Tobi' should be, according to what Sasuke knew.<p>

They had arrived and entered carefully entered the cave, not encountering any resistance (Itachi had taken care of Kabuto, and by extension his zombies, and Naruto had killed black Zetsu, which in turn caused the white Zetsu to wilt away quickly). Soon they had arrived at a room where 'Tobi' had just finished extracting the eight tale from Bee.

After that a major battle had started, though Naruto had made sure to get Bee's corpse out of there so that it wouldn't get damaged in the struggle. In the end Naruto and his friends had won.

"You can't fight anymore, 'Tobi', just give it up" Naruto said as he, Tsunade, Sasuke and Hinata closed in on said person. The rest of the group was injured and where currently being treated by Shizune and Sakura.

"It seems you are right, I can barely move and am unable to phrase shift" 'Tobi' responded as the group had gathered around him. "I have only one option" He continued, then he activated his eye "Dying and taking you with me" He then sent all of the people around him into an dimentional tunnel, while he himself died from Chakra exhaustion.

Naruto and his friends where falling through the tunnel, even the Kyubi, which Naruto had managed to tame, was there, though his power didn't seem to be with him. "What's going on?" Naruto asked, thinking that this dimensional travel seemed to be taking longer then it should.

"This isn't your average dimensional travel" The Kyubi replied "This isn't just taking advantage of different dimensions within the same world, or even sending us to alternative versions of our own. This is sending us to a place where the rules of nature could be vastly different then what we are used to. However that isn't important right now, what is important is that since there is noone on the other side to stabilizing this tunnel our individual souls are not strong enough to travel through it. They will be shredded upon going through it, to the point where we either disappear or become mindless monsters, only interested in destruction"

"How can you be sure " Tsunade said.

"While I do not remember much of being the Juubi, I do remember how it came to exist. Where the Juubi came from it was a Hero of unparalleled power, though he looked like a normal person, however he was attacked and sent through a portal and turned into the raving monster you know as the Juubi. Now can I continue please?" Kyubi replied.

"Please do" Tsunade said.

"As I said before individually our souls are to weak to get through, if we merge however we should be able to make it through" He explained "However, one of us would need to be the main focus of the merger, as to many conflicting personalities merging together is only going to make the end result into a maniac. We would all in some ways affect this persons personality, but it will not be something major."

"In that case I will say that neither you nor Sasuke qualify to being the main focus of this merger," Tsunade said, "While both of you have changed for the better I would not trust you not to have a relapse".

"While I should feel insulted, I do understand where you are coming from" Sasuke stated. "Personally I don't trust you with this either, so I will not agree to you being to focus" He stated looking at Tsunade.

"So that leaves the white eyed girl and the annoying orange brat" The Kyubi stated (it might fight more, but knew that time was limited and since the choice was between complete elimination and limited existence it would choose the latter.

"I think that Naruto would be the best choice" Hinata stated. "Not only do I think he deserves it more, but he is also the most adaptive of us all, giving him an advantage if this world we are travelling to is really different from our own."

"Hey, don't sell yourself short, Hinata," Naruto said "You deserve to go on just as much as I do, and I'm sure you'll be able to adapt to anything"

"While I agree that she deserves it just as much as you do, if not slightly more," Kyubi stated, "it does not change the fact that when it comes to adapting to new situations you are a natural, which is what we need in whatever world we arrive in." He paused for a moment "fact is that we do not even know what state we will be in when we arrive in the dimension. We could get anyone of our bodies back, or some kind of merger of them all, or we could enter a newborn baby in that world an take over it's life in some way or another. Therefore we need someone who can adapt more then we need anything else".

"Okay, so Naruto is the focus." Sasuke said simply "So how do we do this."

"Basically we group hug while willing our souls to join with his," Kyubi stated, "He needs to concentrate on the things about himself that he feels are the most important, the things he would rather die then allow them to change. And your love for Ramen should not be the kind of thing you should focus on, or you might end up losing parts of yourself that really define you, like your willingness to give everything you are to protect your friends"

"Okay, I understand" Naruto said as the others stated to gather around him.

From the beginning Naruto new was aware of some of the changes that the people around him initiated. Physically he got both Hinata's and Sasuke's Doujutsu, Kyubi's ability to produce and control youki, and enhanced chakra control from Tsunade (turns out that enhanced chakra control was a Senju bloodline ability).

Mentally he got some of Sasuke's vengeful streak, though it got tempered by his own forgiving nature to the point where his vengeance would mostly be taken through pranks and humiliation, though he wasn't above killing someone if he felt that it the only way to save those he wanted to protect. Hinata for some reason strengthened his perverted side, especially about seeing to girls together (Because Naruto had always been focused on Sakura, Hinata had developed a fantasy of all three of them together which had led her to becoming bi-sexuel, as long as Naruto was somehow involved.). Tsunade made him more of a gambler, though he was quite sure that he didn't inherit her luck.

He was sure that there where other changes that he just wasn't aware of at this point, but hopefully nothing to bad.

About a minute after the merger was complete Naruto saw a light coming towards him and he knew he was about to enter another dimension

When Naruto hit the portal he felt an intense pain, like something was trying to pull him apart, but by concentrating he was able to fight it of.

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><p>Soon he was able to see things around him and he became aware that he was falling from the sky towards the earth. He panicked for a moment until he became aware that he currently didn't have a body, so he shouldn't be in any danger. Then he noticed a weird light coming from his right and turned towards it, but it hit him before he had time to act taking him wherever the comet like light was going.<p>

Next thing he new he hit a newborn baby, being locked inside it (he thought it ironic that he, who had had someone locked inside him when he was a baby was now getting locked inside a baby himself). He quickly found that he couldn't control the movements of the baby at all, he was simply along for the ride, feeling, seeing, hearing, smelling and tasting everything that Aang (the baby) did.

He also heard the boys thoughts, as well as feeling the presence of whatever that comet of light was, though it was faint, almost separate from the boy himself. In some instances he almost felt like he was part of the link between the boy and the comet.

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><p>It was years later that he found out what the 'comet' was. It was the avatar link, what link Aang to all his past lives. He figured this out when Aang was told that he was the avatar by the elders.<p>

At this point he no longer thought of himself as separate from Aang, though he didn't agree with the monks 'Everyone has a right to live', since he knew that some people where just evil and had to be dealt with decisively.

He learned everything that Aang learned and was sure he could do the same if given a chance.

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><p>Aang had taken his Sky-Bison, Appa and was running away from the temple after finding out that they wanted to take him away from Gyatso and send him to another temple.<p>

Instead of doing as the monks wanted him to do he decided that he would see the world and try all kinds of fun things, like Penguin Sledding.

He was currently stuck in a storm and Appa was getting tired. Soon they felt into the water and just as Aang (and Naruto) was sure that he was going to drown, The avatar link flared up taking over control of the body and locking both him and Appa in a block of ice.

* * *

><p>Two people, a boy and a girl, are sailing through the icy reaches of the south pole. The boy is spear-fishing, holds his spear to the ready while the is girl staring into the water on the other end of the boat. The boy sees a fish swimming close to the surface right in front of him and starts following it's movement with his eyes.<p>

"It's not getting away from me this time." The boy states confidently, with a quick grin at the girl. "Watch and learn, Katara. This is how you catch a fish."

Katara isn't impressed by the statement of the boy and turns back to the water where she sees another fish in the water. Pleasantly surprised she shoots a quick glance toward the boy before removing the glove of her left hand. She stretches her arm out in the direction of the fish while taking a deep breath. Her look is a mixture of concentration and doubt while she starts to make a wavy motion with her wrist, moving her hand up and down. The water in front of Katara starts to ripple and all of a sudden a bubble of water shoots up, holding the fish in its centre.

"Sokka, look! Sokka" Katara says in a happy voice.

"Sshh! Katara, you're going to scare it away." Sokka says, a look of bliss adorning his face. He wets his lips with his tongue and wiggles his fingers without letting the fish out of his sight. "Mmmm... I can already smell it cookin'."

Meanwhile behind Sokka's back, Katara is making circular movements with both her arms, suspending the bubble of water that holds the fish in the air and moving it around. Her face is contorted in concentration.

"But, Sokka! I caught one!" She says while moving the bubble containing her fish slowing over her head toward Sokka who's still oblivious to her success. The moment the bubble hovers over his head, Sokka raises his spear to strike the fish he was following. He burst the bubble of water with the butt of his weapon, accidentally releasing the fish and soaking himself. Katara follows the arc of the fish as it soars through the air and into the sea.

"Hey!" She exclaims in an indignant tone.

"Ugh!" Sokka exclaims before turning to his sister angrily while placing his spear in the boat. "Why is it that every time you play with magic water, I get soaked?" He clenches his fists, wringing out some of the water.

Katara sighs in annoyance. "Urch. It's not magic, it's Waterbending and it's"

"Yeah, yeah, an ancient art unique to our culture, blah, blah, blah." Sokka interrupts her. "Look, I'm just saying that if I had weird powers, I'd keep my weirdness to myself."

This causes Katara to raise an eyebrow and cross her arms "You're calling me weird? I'm not the one who makes muscles at myself every time I see my reflection in the water!"

Katara smiles mockingly at Sokka as he is seen looking at his arm muscles in his reflection in the water. His happy look vanished upon hearing his sister's remark. He turns around slowly to face her, but before they can continue their quarrel they are shaken and with a shock, Sokka realizes that the boat has strayed into dangerous rapids.

The boat is swiftly headed for a barrier of ice that is crushing everything in its path. Sokka paddles the boat in an attempt to stay clear of any floating chunks of ice. He manages to gain just enough speed to keep the boat from being crushed by two icebergs that slam together right behind the boat.

"Watch out! Go left! Go left!" Katara says as they hit some chunks of ice. The boat manages to stay clear of some of the icebergs, but then it is completely crushed between two ice floes. Katara and Sokka narrowly manage to save themselves by jumping onto one of the floes. Katara nearly slides off again, but comes to a halt just at the rim of the floe. The waters have calmed down again, but Sokka and Katara find themselves caught with nowhere to go.

Katara quickly scrambles away from the rim to the middle of the floe where Sokka landed. His spear stands upright beside him in the ice.

"You call that left?" Katara asked.

"You don't like my steering? Well maybe you should've" Sokka states while mockingly moving his arms "Waterbent us out of the ice."

Katara got to her feet "So it's my fault?" she asked.

"I knew I should've left you home!" Sokka states while Katara stares at him in anger while he just calmly sits there. "Leave it to a girl to screw things up!"

"You are the most sexist" Katara begins, swinging back her hands to emphasize her words (and subconsciously waterbending the water behind her) "immature nut brain" She swings her arms again, still waterbending. "I'm embarrassed to be related to you!" She swings her hands back with such force that the iceberg behind her cracks.

Sokka, annoyed with Katara's outburst, was staring to the ground, but looks up when he hears the iceberg crack. Katara continues her outburst and violent movements, causing little chunks of ice to come loose from the iceberg.

"Ever since mom died I've been doing all the work around camp while you've been off playing soldier!" Katara states with another swing of her hand, thus unknowingly enlarging the crack in the iceberg with her Waterbending.

Sokka, seeing what Katara's rage is doing to the iceberg, cowers away. He points at the iceberg and says "Uh... Katara"

"I even wash all the clothes!" Katara interrupts him "Have you ever smelled your dirty socks? Let me tell you, not pleasant!" As she yells out that last word, she unconsciously Waterbends, causing another split in the chunk of ice.

"Katara, settle down!" Sokka says.

"No that's it! I'm done helping you!" Katara states "From now on, you're on your own!"

Her last movement causes the split behind her to crack even further, moving from the base to the top of the iceberg. Sokka gasps for air and it is only now that Katara notices the chunk of ice behind her. She turns around to see it collapse and they are sent back several feet by large wave caused by the falling ice.

Sokka holds a protective arm over Katara while they are both lying flat on the floe, trying to stay on.

After releasing Katara, Sokka states; "Okay, you've gone from weird to freakish, Katara."

"You mean I did that?" Katara said, surprised.

Sokka gives Katara a nudge with his elbow. "Yep. Congratulations." He says sarcastically.

Suddenly, the water beneath them begins to glow a brilliant blue. As strange bubbles come out of the water, the two siblings cower back from the rim, scrambling back on their feet. Without warning, an enormous iceberg bursts to the surface. Katara moves closer and stares at the iceberg while Sokka behind her stretches out his hand as if he wants to hold her back. They see a figure in the iceberg, perched in lotus, with glowing arrows on his head and hands. Katara questioningly raises one eyebrow. Then the figure suddenly opens its eyes, which glow just like the arrows on his head and hands. This sudden movement startles both Katara and Sokka.

"He's alive! We have to help!" She states and grabs Sokka's club and pulls her hood over her head as she heads off toward the strange boy.

Sokka stretches out his hand to hold Katara back, but she is already jumping over the ice toward the boy,. "Katara, get back here! We don't know what that thing is!" He then quickly retracts his spear out of their floe and follows Katara.

The two use five handily placed floes as stepping stones to get to the large iceberg that encases the glowing boy. Katara is the first to reach it and she repeatedly strikes the iceberg on the same spot with Sokka's club. When she slams through the ice, she and her brother are thrown back by a strong gust of wind that escapes from within the iceberg. The hole Katara made causes fissures to run over the whole iceberg and crack it open with an explosion. An incredible beam of light rockets towards the sky.

As the mist from the air-explosion begins to settle Sokka, who had protectively clutched Katara, releases her to see what is going on. Light still encircles the remains of the once big mountain of ice. Sokka looks at his sister and they both get up. Katara holds on to her brother while he points his spear at the crater, ready to protect them. Sokka lowers his spear in shock when they behold a blue figure emerge from the crater of the iceberg.

He then raises the spear up again and says "Stop!" The figure slowly erects himself, now standing atop the crater, looking down at them, causing Katara and Sokka to marvel in wonder and fear.

The circles of light finally die down to as the boy stops glowing. The figure seems to be nothing more than a young boy who suddenly faints. Katara gasps and runs forward to catch before he crashes to the ground. Sokka begins to poke at the boy's head with the blunt tip of his spear.

Waving the spear away, Katara says "Stop it!" She then places the boy gently against the base of the crater. The young boy as he slowly opens his grey eyes. He gasps in awe as he beholds the young Water Tribe girl who stares at him in relieve. Her hair loopies sways in the wind.

Naruto knew right away that something was different, he no longer felt detached. Then he saw that he could actually control the body, and realized that the Avatar link must have forced him to merge with Aang since they needed to go through him to take control of the body and save Aang. Now he was no longer just inside Aang, he was Aang.

"I need to ask you something" He said in a weak voice.

"What?" Katara asked.

"Please... come closer." He said.

"What is it?" Katara asked in a curios tone,

"Will you go Penguin Sledding with me?" Aang asked in a happy voice.

"Uh, sure... I-I guess." Katara answered.

Aang elegantly rises to his feet in one swift motion, surprising the other two. Katara looks at him in awe while Sokka backs away in shock, aiming his spear at him again. Katara glances at him in disbelief.

'Seems I can control airbending just as good as pre-merger Aang' Aang thought. He then started looking around and rubbing his head, while Katara scrambles on her feet. "What's going on here?"

"You tell us!" Sokka stated, aggressively and points at the top of the crater "How did you get in the ice? And why aren't you frozen?" He then pokes Aang with his spear.

Aang lazily pushes the spear away. "I'm...not sure."

A gruff noise can be heard from within the crater of the iceberg. Quickly, the boy scrambles up the ice and happily jumps on the head of a large, furry creature that has the same arrow shaped marking on his forehead as the boy.

"Appa! Are you alright?" Aang asks as he hangs down the side of the beast to look at its eyes, which are still closed. "Wake up, buddy." Aang opens an eyelid that immediately closes again once he releases it. He jumps down to the front of the bison and tries to lift its enormous head. Sokka and Katara appear around the corner when Appa finally start to react by opening his mouth and liking Aang with his giant tongue. Sokka's mouth drops open upon seeing the beast. "Ha, ha! You're okay!" Aang exclaims happily and hugs the bison's nose. Appa stands up on his six legs and stretches himself. Aang starts petting the bison's nose.

"What is that thing?" Sokka asked in shock.

"This is Appa, my flying bison." Aang said, getting a look of disbelief from Sokka.

"Right, and this is Katara, my flying sister." He states sarcastically.

Katara shoots him an odd look. Aang looks questioningly at Sokka for a moment, but his attention is diverted back toward his bison when Appa starts to inhale deeply. Appa sneezes, sending a green blast of mucus out of his nose. Aang ducks just in time, however, Sokka becomes slathered in it. He squeals in disgust and begins to frantically clean it off, rubbing his face in the snow under the amused gaze of his sister.

"Don't worry, it'll wash out." Aang states happily. Green slime is hanging from Sokka's face to his glove, dripping down as he retracts his hand. Katara covers her mouth in disgust. "So do you guys live around here?" 'Hopefully I can start finding out how long I was frozen.

Sokka Pointed his spear accusingly at Aang who is surprised to see the thing. "Don't answer that! Did you see that crazy bolt of light?" Sokka said "He was probably trying to signal the Fire Navy!"

Katara pushes Sokka's spear away again and addresses him sarcastically. "Oh yeah, I'm sure he's a spy for the Fire Navy. You can tell by that 'evil' look in his eye." She states, causing Aang to shoot the two an earnest grin. "The paranoid one is my brother, Sokka. You never told us your name."

"I'm A... a-a-a-Achoo!" Aang begins only to sneeze halfway through, rocketing himself into the air, before falling down and landing softly "I'm Aang." He tries again.

"You just sneezed" Sokka states and point into the air "and flew ten feet in the air!"

"Really? It felt higher, more like 14 feet." Aang stated, having gotten good at estimating heights when he was a ninja.

Katara gasps for air in comprehension. "You're an Airbender!"

"Sure am." Aang states, not sure why Katara seems so shocked.

"Giant light beams, flying bison, Airbenders... " Sokka states while walking away "I think I got midnight sun madness. I'm going home to where stuff makes sense." He then realizes, that he is stranded in the middle of the ocean with no way home.

"Well, if you guys are stuck, Appa and I can give you a lift." Aang says while jumping onto Appa.

"We'd love a ride! Thanks." Katara states and runs to the side of the bison.

"Oh no! I'm not getting on that fluffy snot monster!" Sokka states.

Katara, while climbing on top of Appa with the help of Aang, says; "Are you hoping some other monster will come along and give you a ride home? You know, before you freeze to death?"

Sokka opens his mouth in defiance and point at Katara, ready to retaliate, but he can't think of something. He sighs and bows his head in consent.

Soon both siblings are sitting on Appa's saddle. Sokka has his arms crossed in front of him with a sulking expression on his face while Katara is full of excitement and anticipation.

"Okay, first time flyers, hold on tight!" Aang stated "Appa, yip-yip!" Aang then wipes the reins and Appa growls in respond. He moves his tail up and down and takes a huge jump into the air. He soars through the air for a moment, before belly flopping into the water with a splash. The bison begins trudging through the water slowly. Katara crawls to the front of the saddle, while Aang urges his bison again by wiping the reins once more. "Come on, Appa. Yip-yip!" He says.

"Wow, that was truly amazing." Sokka says in an sarcastic tone, causing Katara to glare at him.

"Appa's just a little tired. A little rest and he'll be soaring through the sky." Aang states confidently " You'll see". This causes Katara to smile at Aang who returns the gesture.

'This girl is really pretty' Aang thought, 'Maybe I should try an date her, and maybe something more... Wait, where did that come from, this isn't the time, I need to find out what is going on and then return to the Air temple and get some advice before learning the rest of the elements. I don't know what trouble the monks where talking about and who know what I missed while frozen in that ice' Aang didn't realize that while he was thinking that he had continued smiling at Katara.

Katara had noticed and it made her slightly uncomfortably. "Why are you smiling at me like that?" She asked.

"Oh, I was smiling?" Aang asked.

Sokka throws his head back and sticks his tongue out in disgust while groaning loudly. Katara glares at him while Appa continues to make his way through the icy sea, flapping his tail in the water.

A short while later Aang lays lazily on Appa's head, his arms tucked under his head. Katara crawls to the front of the saddle again to have a better look at the boy. She leans on the front of the saddle and rests her head on her arm.

"Hey." Katara said.

"Hey. What'cha thinkin' about?" Aang asked.

"I guess I was wondering, you being an Airbender and all, if you had any idea what happened to the Avatar?" Katara said

Aang thought for a moment 'The trouble the monks where talking about could be related to the water tribes, but I don't think Katara is involved. Perhaps I should go for getting more information before telling her to much "What do you mean with 'What happened to the avatar'?" he finally asks.

"Well, he disappeared around a hundred years ago, and no-one has seen him since." Katara said, shocking Aang though he hid it well. "Just before the fire-nation wiped out the airbenders. Well apart from you, and maybe the Avatar"

"Wait, that happened a hundred years ago, but I was just there, unless I've been sealed in the ice for longer then I thought" Aang said in shock.

"I didn't think anyone could survive in ice that long." Katara replied.

"I think I need time to think." Aang said.

"Okay. Good night then Aang Sleep tight."

"Night Katara" Aang responded

'So the fire-nation was part of the trouble that the monks where talking about' Aang thought, 'And that was a hundred years ago. Where the airbenders really wiped out or did they just go into hiding, waiting for me to return? The fire-nation shouldn't have the means to attack the air temples, so perhaps they are still up there, but I don't want to get my hopes up.' Aang thoughts then turned to his current situation 'Wonder if Katara noticed that I avoided her question, or if I managed to sidetrack her. I don't know whether I should tell her the truth or not. I already realize that I like her, and therefore I don't want her to look at me differently. I also need a way to keep my pervertedness in check or I'm going to be in big trouble. Damn you Hinata, couldn't you have given me your insight-fullness instead of all your pervertedness. Anyway, need to become the Avatar anyway so that means I need to find a waterbender to teach me. Maybe Katara knows someone. I also still have some fun things I want to try though I'll cut some of them out of my plans, since they just won't be as fun when there's a war going on'. He then turned to his side and fell asleep.

* * *

><p>"Aang? Aang! Wake up." Aang woke with a start.<p>

'Need to regain some of my ninja senses, how did they get me of Appa and in here without me noticing.' He thought before sitting up, causing Katara, who was sitting beside him, to stand up as she sees that Aang is awake.

"It's okay, we're in the village now. Come on, get ready." Katara says then points at the door. "Everyone's waiting to meet you."

Aang happily gets out of bed and starts to dress himself (while remaining seated) while Katara takes a step toward the door. Before she exits, however, she glances back at Aang and stares in wonder at the blue, arrow shaped tattoos that seemingly cover his arms, legs, back and head. She gasps for air. Before Aang was able to get up, Katara pulls him along on his arm and out of the tent toward the entire congregation of villagers. He passes Sokka who is sitting at the side of the tent, sharpening his boomerang.

"Aang, this is the entire village." Katara states, pointing at a line of villagers in front of them. "Entire village, Aang."

Aang bows respectfully toward the villages, but they cower away in fear, bringing a surprised look on Katara and Aang's face. Sokka just watches from a distance.

"Uh, why are they all looking at me like that? Did Appa sneeze on me?" Aang says as he checks his clothing while an elderly woman steps forward out of the line of villagers.

"Well, no one has seen an Airbender in a hundred years." Kanna said. "We thought they were extinct, until my granddaughter and grandson found you."

"Oh, right, Katara mentioned that yesterday" Aang said

"Aang, this is my grandmother." Katara stated.

"Call me Gran-Gran." Kanna said.

Sokka walks toward Aang and abruptly snatches his staff out of his hands and starts to examine it. "What is this, a weapon?" he asked in an annoyed tone "You can't stab anything with this!"

Aang used and air current to cause the staff to smack Sokka's head lightly before returning it to his own hands "It's not for stabbing. It's for Airbending." He opens the staff into a glider, making Sokka gasp in fright and cover his head with his hands.

"Magic trick!" a village girl said "Do it again!"

"Not magic, Airbending." Aang states as he moves his glider around him, visually demonstrating what he is talking about. "It lets me control the air currents around my glider and fly."

"You know, last time I checked, humans can't fly!" Sokka Mocked.

"Check again!" Aang states and grabs hold of his glider and pushes himself of the ground, leaving Katara and Sokka behind to cover their faces against the sudden wind. The village stares in awe as Aang makes some loops and turns in the sky.

"He's flying!" A Village Girl said in admiration. Aang makes another loops and speeds up to soar past the gazing villagers. "It's amazing!" She says.

Aang's shadow passes over Katara who's smiling broadly at him. Aang, wanting to impress the villagers some more, flies sideways and closes his eyes while grinning broadly. As a result of this he smacks full on against the village's watchtower, causing it to crumble. Katara cover her mouth in sympathy as she watches Aang's struggles to get his head out of the icy watchtower. He succeeds to free himself and tumbles down. Katara immediately rushes to his side while Sokka stares in shock at the damage inflicted to his watchtower.

"My watchtower!" He cries out.

Aang lies covered in snow at the base of the partially collapsed tower. Katara and some other girls of the tribe run smiling toward Aang.

Katara offers her hand to pull him out of the snow and says "That was amazing!" S

okka runs toward his watchtower and starts to pat it in the hope that he can save it from collapsing any further. While Aang spins his staff around to retract its wings, Sokka is being knocked down by a large pack of snow that falls down.

"Great. You're an Airbender, Katara is a Waterbender." Sokka says in annoyance "Together you can just waste time all day long." He wedges himself free from underneath the weight of the snow and stalks off."

"You're a Waterbender?" Aang said hopefully, wondering whether she could teach him.

"Well, sort of." Katara said, uncertain "Not yet."

"Alright, no more playing." Kanna said "Come on, Katara. You have chores." Kanna leads Katara away from Aang. The surrounding villagers part to let the duo pass.

"I told you, he's the real thing Gran-Gran!" Katara said excitedly "I finally found a bender to teach me!"

"Katara, try not to put all your hopes in this boy." Kanna said calmly.

"But he's special! I can tell!" Katara said while she clenches her fist and closed her eyes in hope. "I sense he's filled with much wisdom." Katara opens her eyes again and glances back toward Aang who is surrounded by a bunch of kids. His smiles while his tongue is stuck to his staff.

"See?" He says "Now my tongue is stuck to my staff!" Much to Aang's discomfort, one of the smaller village boys starts to yank his staff, pulling Aang along with every movement. The village kids laugh and applaud Aang as his tongue remains stuck on his staff.

* * *

><p>Sokka held a speech to some kids about the importance of fighting for the tribe and then was forced to stop to allow them to go to the loo. Katara rans up to Sokka just as the children leave.<p>

"Have you seen Aang?" She asks him worriedly "Gran-Gran said he disappeared over an hour ago."

Just then Aang came out of an igloo that serves as the bathroom and he pulls his pants up a bit higher. "Wow! EVERYTHING freezes in there!" He states and points toward the bathroom with a smile on his face. Sokka's 'soldiers' halt beside Aang and laugh with him.

"Uh!" Sokka says and points at Aang "Katara, get him out of here! This lesson is for warriors only!"

Sokka was about to walk away when he hears the sound of playing children. "Whee!" He turns around to see the village children sliding down Appa's tail like a slide. The end of the tail is held upwards, so the children are propelled in the air. They fly over Sokka's spear that now serves as a mark that they need to cross before landing in a soft pile of snow. Katara laughs as a boy lands head first in the snow, but Sokka rushes forward.

"Stop! Stop it right now!" Sokka states in anger and the laughter of the children dies down immediately and Appa turns his head to look at Sokka who accusingly directs his anger to Aang. "What's wrong with you? We don't have time for fun and games with the War going on." Sokka takes back his spear and looks annoyed at the laughing children who run past him.

"While training and working are necessary if you do not counter-balance it with fun, especially with children, then they will not be focused in the long run and will only grow hateful of everyone."

Sokka raises one eyebrow in disbelief. "You're kidding, right?"

Aang looks questioningly at Sokka, but then the expression on his face changes to enthusiasm as he catches sight of Otter-Penguin. "PENGUIN!"

The animal startles at Aang's outburst and quickly waddles off. Aang gives chase, racing past Katara and Sokka, enhancing his speed with his Airbending. He leaves a deep trail in the snow as he dashes after the penguin.

"He's kidding, right?" Sokka said. Katara just shakes her head at him, agreeing with both the boy; They needed to be prepared for an attack, but they needed to make sure not to pressure the children to much.

* * *

><p>Katara approaches the Otter-Penguin habitat, where hundreds of Otter-Penguins are walking or sliding down icebergs, in search for Aang.<p>

"Aang?" She calls out

She then sees Aang chasing the penguins while laughing. "Hehehe hehe! Hey, come on little guy. Wanna go sledding?" He says to a penguin before he jumps at a it, but the animal evades his attempt and Aang belly flops in the snow. He turns on his back and quickly erects himself with his Airbending as Katara comes up beside him. "Heh heh. I have a way with animals." Aang stretches his arms wide and imitates the sound and walk of the animals around them, making Katara laugh.

"Hehehe, Aang, I'll help you catch a penguin if you teach me Waterbending." Katara states.

Aang hangs on the tail of a penguin that's pulling him through the snow. "I would love to take the deal but there is just one problem." Aang states as he airbend himself to a sitting position. "I'm an Airbender, not a Waterbender. Isn't there someone in your tribe who can teach you?"

"No." Katara states sadly "You're looking at the only Waterbender in the whole South Pole."

"This isn't right." Aang states "A Waterbender needs to master water." He thinks for a moment. "What about the North Pole? There's another water tribe up there, right? Maybe they could teach you."

"Maybe, but we haven't had contact with out sister tribe in a long time." Katara states "It's not exactly turn right at the second glacier. It's on the other side of the world!"

"But you forget, I have a flying bison." He says happily and points at himself. "Appa and I can personally fly you to the North Pole. Katara, we're going to find you a master!"

"That's... I mean, I don't know." Katara says in an unsure tone "I've never left home before."

"Well, you think about it. I can try and teach you some basic stuff but don't know how many airbending technics can be helpful for a water bender. In the meantime, can you help me catch one of these penguins?"

"Okay, listen closely my young pupil." Katara says in a mock teacher voice and slightly bows her head toward Aang. "Catching penguins is an ancient and sacred art." She pulls a fish out of her sleeve. "Observe!"

She tosses Aang the fish. As he catches it with an uncomprehending look on his face, the penguins immediately begin crowding him. He laughs as the penguins swarm over him, pulling him down amidst their ranks.

* * *

><p>Aang and Katara are sliding down an iceberg slide while each sitting atop of a penguin. The soar through the air for a moment before landing on the sloop and continuing their journey downwards. They race down and Aang uses another iceberg as a ramp to propel him in the air and to soar over and past Katara. She in turn uses the next jump to land next to Aang again. The two laugh and shout out as they gleefully ride over snowy bumps.<p>

"I haven't done this since I was a kid!" Katara states happily

The two ride through a tunnel of ice. Katara is in the lead and tries to hold Aang back by constantly changing her direction when he wants to pass her. Aang solves this problem by increasing his speed with Airbending, enabling him to race over the ceiling past Katara. The tunnel levels out on an open plain of ice where the two get off their rides. Aang walks over to a Fire Nation shipwreck.

"Whoah!" So this is a fire-nation warship, isn't it?" Aang said.

"Yes and a very bad memory for my people."

Aang sat down. "I need to tell you something."

"What?" Katara asked.

"Two things, actually, both secrets that I trust you to keep." Aang said, "and I want to tell you because I like you and think you can be trusted. I also hope that this won't change your opinion of me."

"I'll keep your secrets" Katara said.

"My first secret is that I am the Avatar" Aang began "I've been in that block of ice for a hundred years. Everyone I knew is likely dead by now."

Katara enveloped Aang in a hug "I'm sorry for your loss, Aang" She said, "I admit that I thought you where connected to the Avatar somehow, but didn't know for sure that you where actually him".

"My second secret will be a lot harder to believe, heck if I hadn't happened to me I wouldn't believe it myself" Aang said. Katara tried to say something but Aang put a finger to her mouth "Please don't say anything until I'm finished," Katara nodded, "Part of me is from a different dimension," Katara's face now had an confused expression "I was in a fight that ended with me being sent here, I won't go into the details apart from the fact that he was a bad person that needed to be stopped, and while I managed that it also threw me to this dimension." Aang took a deep breath. "When I arrived here I was only a soul without a body, and before I even hit this planet I was hit by a comet of light, which I later found out was the soul of the Avatar travelling from it's previous life to find it's next incarnation. I ended up being taken along for the ride and became part of the link between the previous Avatars and Aang. I experienced everything Aang did as if it was me doing it, even if I wasn't in control of anything. As time went by it became harder to tell who I really was, until I reached the point where I felt that I was Aang. When The Avatar state took over to save Aang from drowning, locking him and me in stasis inside a block of ice, it also merged us completely, which in effect just allowed me to move the body rather then just be along for the ride, since I already felt like a part of him."

Katara just stared at him in shock. After three minutes she finally spoke "So you are the Avatar, but you are also something else?".

"Very much so, I actually need to check whether I still have my old abilities" Aang said and put his hands in the ram sign and gathered Chakra. "Shadow clone" He said. There was a puff of smoke and another Aang appeared beside him. "Seems it actually still works." At that point Katara fainted.

She woke up a short while later and looked at Aang "I think I just had a very strange dream" She stated.

"If the dream involved me being from a different dimension and making clones of myself than I'm afraid it wasn't a dream." Aang responded.

"Oh, okay" Katara said. "So you are 112 chronologically, 12 biologically, but how old are you mentally?" She then asked.

"Well, when I left my own dimension I was 17, but merging with Aang and living his life I would say that I am actually still very young mentally, maybe 13 or 14." Aang responded.

"What was your name in the other dimension?" Katara then asked, curious about where this person was coming from, but afraid to ask about his abilities in general.

"Naruto" Aang responded. "I'll give you some time to think about it, but in the mean time let's explore this ship" He then started to walk to the ship.

"Aang, stop!" Katara said "We're not allowed to go near it! The ship could be booby-trapped!"

"If you want to be a bender, you have to let go of fear." Aang stated, "You can be cautious but you must not be afraid"

Katara ponders over that remark for a moment and then walks toward Aang with a scared look upon her face. The two venture closer toward the ship. Aang helps Katara to climb some of the blocks of ice that lay beside the ship and they crawl through a hole in the hull of the ship. The two walk through the silent rooms of the shipwreck. Some white hamsters roam the otherwise deserted ship. Aang enters a room stocked to the rim with weapons.

"This ship has haunted my tribe since Gran-Gran was a little girl." Katara explained as they walked through the ship "It was part of the Fire Nation's first attacks."

"I had friends all over the world, even in the Fire Nation" Aang stated "I never thought that they would lead a war" He says in a sad voice as he sits down on the floor.

"I'm sorry, Aang." Katara said, Squatting beside him. "Maybe somehow there's a bright side to all this..."

"I did get to meet you." He says with a smile that made Katara blush slightly.

Katara then smiled warmly at him while offering her hand. "Come on, let's get out of here." Katara pulls him to his feet and they exit the room.

A short time she says "Aang, let's head back, this place is creepy."

Aang ventures down yet another room with Katara in his trail. There, he trips over a thin rope, barring the entrance, thus trapping them.

"Huh? Man I need to relearn to be aware of my surroundings" Aang said as the two of them ran back to the, now barred, door. "Seems you where right about booby traps"

The gears and engines of the shipwreck begin to power up and function. In shock, Katara and Aang follow the movements of the machines until suddenly, a flare is fired and explodes high in the sky. Aang notices a hole in the roof of the ship and takes a surprised Katara into his arms "Hold on tight!"

"Aaah!" Katara Screams as Aang enhances the power of his jump with his Airbending to jump several feet into the air through the hole.

After Aang land he quickly turn to Katara "If we run to the village we might lead the fire-nation straight there, but if we don't go there and the fire-nation goes there anyway we won't be able to protect them." Aang states. "what do you want to do"

"Let's go back" Katara states and they start running back to the village.


	2. The Avatar Returns

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: Well here's the next chapter, got it done a lot faster then I thought I would, but I can't promise that I can keep this speed for an extended period of time.

* * *

><p>Aang and Katara quickly run towards the Southern Water Tribe where the villagers are standing in the snow, waiting for them just outside the village children become overjoyed upon seeing Aang.<p>

"Yay! Aang's back!" The village kids yell in joy as some of them run over to him while the others remain cheerful in the crowd. The adults in the crowd are, however, less welcoming.

The children reach Aang and Katara and they crowd around him gleefully. Aang happily greets them back. Sokka breaks himself free out of the line of villagers and steps forward to face Aang.

"I knew it!" Sokka says while pointing at Aang accusingly while going towards them. "You signaled the Fire Navy with that flare! You're leading them straight to us, aren't you?"

"Aang didn't do anything." Katara protests "It was an accident."

"Yeah. We were on the ship and there was this booby trap, and well" Aang began then paused and rubbed his head "we boobied right into it."

"Katara, you shouldn't have gone on that ship!" Kanna said "Now we could all be in danger!"

"Don't blame Katara." Aang defended "I brought her there. It's my fault."

"Aha! The traitor confesses!" Sokka exclaims "Warriors, away from the enemy." The children begin to walk away. "The foreigner is banished from our village."

"Sokka, you're making a mistake." Katara began.

"No, I'm keeping my promise to Dad." Sokka interrupts and then points at Aang "I'm protecting you from threats like him!"

"Aang is not our enemy!" Katara said fiercely but then continues in a calm voice. "Don't you see? Aang's brought us something we haven't had in a long time: fun." She would have continued but was interrupted again.

"Fun? We can't fight Firebenders with fun!" Sokka said in an annoyed voice.

"Maybe not, but you can't fight them with children who only think of war" Aang said "If you do that they might end up becoming exactly like the fire-nation."

"Get out of our village! Now!" Sokka says.

"Grandmother, please." Katara pleaded. "Don't let Sokka do this!"

"Katara, you knew going on that ship was forbidden." Kanna said. "Sokka is right. I think it best if the Airbender leaves."

"Fine! Then I'm banished, too!" Katara says and starts dragging Aang away "Come on Aang, let's go."

"Where do you think you're going?" Sokka demanded.

"To find a Waterbender." Katara exclaims "Aang is taking me to the North Pole."

"I am?" Aang asked.

"Katara! Would you really choose him over your tribe?" Sokka asked and points at the water tribe "Your own family?" This causes Katara to stop in her tracks.

"This isn't about choosing one over the other" Aang stated. "Right now you are sending me away to protect yourselves, but the fact remains that the fire nation might be on it's way and if they where close enough they saw me and Katara leave the ship. This means that they saw someone from the water tribe with me and will assume that you are hiding an Airbender. If you want to protect your village you either need both of us to stay and help you defend or you need both of us to leave so you can say that you banished Katara for interacting with a stranger and going to that ship. We will of course be seen leaving to lead them away from you, since an airbender is probably a better price then your village."

"Stop trying to sound like you care about this village" Sokka said in anger.

"Stop it Sokka, He's right" Kanna said "We are letting fear cloud our judgement. Right now we need all the help we can get if the fire-nation shows up."

"But-" Sokka began before thinking about what was said "Fine"

"Appa, you need to hide for a while, since you haven't gotten you're flying abilities back yet you would not be of help so I will take you some place safe." Aang said then turned around "I'll be back in a bit"

A short while later Sokka coaches the young boys to prepare for battle just outside the village.

"Alright, ready our defenses!" Sokka states "The Fire Nation could be on our shores any moment now!"

"But I gotta..." Says a Village boy while stopping and dancing around

"and no potty breaks!" Sokka interrupts him.

* * *

><p>Aang is petting Appa after finding a good spot for him to be. Appa grunts.<p>

"Yeah, I like her to, and I better get back" He then sees a fire-nation ship approaching the village from a distance "Man, they where closer then I thought" Aang says before hurrying back to the village.

* * *

><p>Sokka prepares for battle inside a Water Tribe tent. He dons gloves, boots and bindings and applies face paint. After necessary preparations, he puts his boomerang away on his back. He grabs his club and then glances at a candle that flickers before he exits.<p>

Sokka stands atop the wall facing the sea, while overlooking the foggy horizon. Suddenly a loud, cracking noise can be heard, getting the attention of everyone in the camp. The the ground begins to quake and a rumbling sound is heard in the distance. At Sokka's feet bits of the wall are cracking and breaking off. A mother carrying her child slowly backs away in fright. A watchtower on the wall is shaking under the pressure of the trembling and completely collapses.

"Oh man!" Sokka says in disappointment at the fact that it collapsed so easily.

Meanwhile the citizens are beginning to flee from the scene. Katara runs up and looks up at her brother still standing atop the wall and her look turns to one of horror as she sees an enormous shadow of a fire-nation ship coming into view.

"Oh maaan... " Sokka says, this time in a dejected tone.

The ship continues approaching the village, cutting through the icy sea. Soon the ship reaches the snowy shores and starts cutting through it splintering the ground. Sokka looks terrified at the large ship. The ship's approach creates a large crack that quickly travels toward the village and through the wall.

Meanwhile Katara was helping her grandmother into a tent when she hears a frightened scream. She gasps in terror when she realizes that the sound came from a small boy, kneeling on the ground. The fissure is rapidly approaching him, but Katara quickly runs over and scoops up the child before the ground splinters underneath. She sets the child down again in front of a tent which he quickly enters and then Katara turns back to view her brother.

"Sokka, get out of the way!" Katara yells as she sees him still standing on the wall right in front of the ship. Sokka ignores her and instead raises his club in defence, ready to strike. Before he can make his move, however, the bow crumbles a large portion of the wall into snowy ruins. The snow slides downward, pushing Sokka several feet back before he lands to a halt. With a loud hiss of steam, the ship has come to a halt as well.

The villagers curiously come out of hiding and are staring in complete shock at the large vessel. Katara looks at the ship with her mouth open and gasps. Sokka also gasps when he catches sight of the bow of the ship opening and creaking forward in a burst of steam, forming a walkway. He backs up and falls to the ground once the bow hits the ground with a loud thud. The villagers gather closer around for support and several people even cover their eyes. Katara takes a step back upon noticing the shape of three figures cloaked in the mist.

Prince Zuko emerges from the mist, two guards following close behind him. The villagers huddled together while Sokka kneels in the snow, ready to defend his tribe. Prince Zuko descends from the ship along with the two guards, while more soldiers start appearing behind them. Sokka lets out a battle cry and charges at the prince with his club ready to strike. When he reaches Zuko, the Prince merely kicks the club to his left and, without ever resting his leg on the ground, kicks Sokka over to his right, sending him into the snow where his head becomes trapped. The warrior desperately tries to free himself as Zuko continues on his way to the village, followed by six more men. Katara covers her mouth in shock upon witnessing her brother's quick defeat.

Zuko approaches the group of villagers. First he goes the the right end of the line, then along the line to the other end. He stops in front of Katara, who's clutching Kanna.

"Where are you hiding him? Zuko says angrily while he surveys the crowd of villagers who fall completely silent. Without warning, he extends his arm out into the crowd and grabs Kanna, holding her by the hood of her parka "He'd be about this age, master of all elements?" He states before he shoves Kanna forcefully back into the crowd.

The elderly woman shudders in fear and embraces Katara, while Katara shoots an angrily glare at Zuko. Receiving no response, Zuko swings his arm out and releases a blast of fire However a gust of wind blasts it to the side so that it doesn't come near the villagers.

"Who did that" Zuko shouts.

Meanwhile Sokka ( Who's lost most of his war paint at this point) runs over and picks up his club. He lets out another battle cry as he charges toward the prince's back. Zuko swiftly turns around just as Sokka approaches. He ducks under Sokka's wide swing and hurls the warrior forward. Sokka lands on his rear in the snow when another gust of wind sends Zuko backwards. Sokka spins to the side and tosses his boomerang at the enemy who barely manages to avoid getting hit by the weapon. Zuko growls in anger at the near hit.

One of the village boys tosses Sokka a spear. "Show no fear!" The boy shouts.

Sokka handily catches the weapon and charges Zuko once more, but Zuko breaks of pieces of the spear with his forearms, pulls the remains of the weapon out of Sokka's hands only for both him and Sokka to be pushed apart by another gust of wind. Zuko gets back up only for the Boomerang to strikes him on the back of his helmet with a loud cling. He is momentarily pushed forward by the unexpected blow. Zuko rearranges his helmet and growls at Sokka. The boomerang has plummeted into the ground in front of Sokka's feet. Enraged, Zuko readies two fire daggers.

At this point Aang (Who had been hiding in the shadows and used his windbending to support and protect since Zuko had first tried to use fire to scare the villagers) decided that it was time to take an active role. He jumps from the side and strikes Zuko hard to the back of his knees with his staff, causing Zuko to fall backward, while Aang himself speeds past, before making a somersault and landing in a crouch. Meanwhile Zuko spins around a few times before coming to a halt in front of his men with his head in the snow and his helmet landing on his rear.

"Hey, Katara. Hey, Sokka." Aang states as if he had just arrived, though all the villagers had known he was there for a while since the wind had been far to much in their favour.

"Hi, Aang. Thanks for coming." Sokka states in an annoyed tone.

Aang looks back at the Fire Nation soldiers, where Zuko just got back on his feet again. Upon his signal, his men spread out, surrounding Aang while Zuko assumes a fighting stance. Aang had been in his crouching fighting stance since his arrival, his staff held firmly in both his hands slightly in front of him. He keeps that position as he is being surrounded by the soldiers. He then spins in place, sweeping his staff along the ground which showers the men with snow. He then slams the ground, sending a rush of snow at Zuko who braces for the impact. After being sprayed with snow, and heating it up so it would melt off, Zuko looks up angrily.

"Looking for me?" Aang states.

"You're the Airbender?" Zuko states in shock "You're the Avatar?" Aang just resumes his fighting stance.

"Aang?" Katara says confused, since earlier he had asked her to keep that a secret.

"No way!" Sokka says.

Zuko and Aang start moving about in a circular pattern, both awaiting the attack of the other.

"I've spent years preparing for this encounter. Training, meditating." Zuko states while getting progressively angrier "You're just a child!"

"Well, you're just a teenager." Aang states calmly.

Zuko launches a series of fire blasts at Aang, who defends himself by twirling his staff, dissipating the flames. Zuko attacks Aang again, causing Aang to realise that the villagers are right behind him. Zuko fires another blast at Aang who twirls his staff once again to ward the attack off, but realizes that currently he is endangering the villagers and since his main goal was to protect them his current actions where counter-productive. Therefore he placed his staff in the ground causing Zuko to stop attacking.

"If I go with you," Aang begins "will you promise to leave everyone alone?"

After a brief moment of hesitation, Zuko erects himself and nods in agreement. Aang is apprehended by Zuko's men, who take his staff. Katara runs forward as they lead Aang away.

"No! Aang, don't do this!" She says.

"Don't worry, Katara. It'll be okay." Aang said before he gets a shove which causes him to gasp, which in turn causes Katara's face to contorts with sadness and fright. "Take care of Appa for me until I get back."

"Set a course for the Fire Nation." Zuko says as he walks up the walkway in front of Aang "I'm going home."

Aang stops at the top of walkway and looks back at Katara, smiling weakly while surrounded by Fire Nation soldiers. Katara who looks up at hin with tears in her eyes as the bow lifts up and hides Aang from changing back to a shot of Aang who now frowns as the bow rises and is locked into place with a thud

* * *

><p>Katara is standing on the edge of the southern shores looking out into the distance, while talking to her brother behind her.<p>

"We have to go after that ship, Sokka." Katara states in determination, as Sokka moves around behind her carrying some packs by her, "Aang saved our tribe, now we have to save him."

"Katara, I" Sokka began but Katara interrupts him.

"Why can't you realize that he's on our side?" Katara states while making arm gestures to emphasize her words "If we don't help him, no one will. I know you don't like Aang, but we owe him and"

"Katara!" Sokka interrupts her, slightly annoyed "Are you gonna talk all day, or are you comin' with me?" Sokka then gestures to a canoe floating in the water. Katara immediately grins and runs to him.

"Sokka!" She exclaims as she gives him a hug.

"Get in, we're going to save your boyfriend". Sokka says

Katara blushes briefly before stating "He's not my .."

"Whatever." Sokka says while shrugging.

"What do you two think you're doing?" Kanna's voice comes from behind them. The two siblings turn around, look at her and try to act as innocently as possible, though Sokka's broad grin makes it less convincing. "You'll need these." Kanna then says with a warm smile while holding up their sleeping bags. "You have a long journey ahead of you." The siblings glance at each other in surprise. Kanna then walks over to face Katara. "It's been so long since I've had hope, but you brought it back to life, my little Waterbender." She says and hugs Katara and who at the end takes the sleeping back out of her hands. Kanna then turns to Sokka "And you, my brave warrior, be nice to your sister." She tells him and hugs him.

"Yeah, okay Gran." He says while awkwardly padding her back, then smiles broadly as she releases him.

"Aang is the Avatar." Kanna states "He's the world's only chance. You both found him for a reason. Now your destinies are intertwined with his." The two siblings look at each other uneasily.

"There's no way we're going to catch a warship with a canoe." Katara states while pointing at it. She then hears a growl and looks up to see Appa approaching "Appa!" She exclaims happily and runs over to the bison.

"You just looove taking me out of my comfort zone, don't you?" Sokka says.

* * *

><p>Aang, Zuko, Iroh and some of Zuko's men are standing on deck. Aang's hands are bound behind his back while Zuko holds Aang's staff.<p>

"This staff will make an excellent gift for my father." Zuko states while inspecting the staff "I suppose you wouldn't know of fathers, being raised by monks." He then turns to the soldiers "Take the Avatar to the prison hold and" Turning to Iroh and handing him the staff "take this to my quarters. Iroh takes the staff and looks at it for a moment while Zuko walks away.

"Hey, you mind taking this to his quarters for me?" Iroh says to one of the soldiers who accepts the staff. Iroh then walks away.

Aang is pushed forward by two of the soldiers and he grunts as they roughly shove him ahead. As Aang is being led to the stairs that go below deck he sees Iroh and the Firebender carrying his staff walking toward a door leading to the upper deck. Aang and his guards begins descending a staircase leading to compartment beneath the deck. When they walk through the corridor at the bottom of the stairs Aang has one soldier before him and one following after him.

"So, I guess you've never seen an Airbender before." Aang states "I bet I could take you both with my hands tied behind my back."

"Silence." The guard before him states.

The party stops and Aang observes the soldier in front of him preparing to unlock a door. As the guard in front of him begins to unlock the cell, Aang inhales deeply and unleashes a powerful breath, stunning both of them. The Firebender before him slams into the door subsequently knocked out from the impact. Aang is sent several feet back, slamming into the guard behind him. The both fly back even further, where they crash into the stairs. The soldier behind Aang is knocked out by the impact, while Aang propels himself onto the deck and kicks open the door he saw his staff being taken through using Airbending. He quickly runs down the hallway, panting heavily. He tosses a frightened look over his shoulder, afraid that he's being followed.

* * *

><p>Katara and Sokka sit atop Appa, who still hasn't gone airborne, but is instead swimming in the water. Katara is sitting on top of Appa's head, while Sokka rests in the saddle.<p>

"Go. Fly." Sokka states in an unamused voice. Katara glances annoyed at her brother. "Soar." Sokka says completely ignoring her.

"Please, Appa." Katara pleads with Appa but only gets a friendly growl in return. "We need your help. Aang needs your help."

"Up. Ascend. Elevate." Sokka tries unhelpfully.

"Sokka doesn't believe you can fly, but I do, Appa." Katara states as she strokes Appa "Come on, don't you want to save Aang?" Appa just grunts in reply.

"What was it that kid said?" Sokka says to himself "Yee-haw? Hup-hup? Wah-hoo? Uh, yip-yip?"

Sokka startles at the sudden movement that last command brought with it as it seemingly prompts Appa. He grunts and beats the water with his tail. After what appears to be a brief running start, he takes flight and soars through the air.

"You did it, Sokka!" Katara states happily.

"He's flying! He's flying! Katara, he's " Sokka says ecstatically while looking over the rim of the saddle but stops talking when he looks at Katara and sees her smirk. He then tries to play it cool. "I mean, big deal. He's flying."

* * *

><p>Aang is frantically running through the corridors. He stops in his tracks and yells out when he encounters three soldiers standing with swords drawn in the middle of the corridor.<p>

"You haven't seen my staff around, have you?" he asks them.

The three men prepare to attack him, but before they can make a move, Aang jumps to the wall and kicks of it towards the head of the nearest soldier using him as a springboard to get to the next guard where he repeats the action, effectively knocking out all three of them.

"Thanks anyway!" Aang states as he continues racing through the hallways of the ship.

When he rose another deck he encounters another guard. The soldier fires a blast at Aang who leaps forward. Aang somersaults over the soldier and uses the sharp tip of his helmet to cut his bindings, thus freeing himself. The soldier falls over from the impact and Aang stops briefly to kick him in the face, knocking him out as well. Aang then proceeds down the hall opening doors leading to various compartments of the ship. Upon opening a door, he finds Iroh sleeping blissfully, snoring.

"Sorry." He whispers as he quietly closes the door.

Aang runs past an open doorway only to slow down and trace his way back upon catching sight of his glider. His face brightens upon recognition of the object but before he goes through the door he uses airbending to open the door all the way, getting a groan of pain from the person standing behind it. He quickly runs in and grabs the staff and leaves before Zuko can regain his bearings.

Soon he arrives at the hatch to the control room and uses airbending to quickly open it and whirlwind himself up through the opening. Aang runs across the room, leaping over a table and past the soldier in the room who looks up in surprise. Aang exits the room and runs onto the upper deck of the ship. Aang happily spreads his arms and welcomes the fresh air. He throws his staff over the balcony which opens into a glider and he quickly jumps after it, grabs it and begins soaring away. However before he can get away someone grabs a hold of his leg and he looks down to see Zuko holding on to his ankle. Aang expression of triumph turns into one of despair as he begins losing altitude, struggling to maintain the weight of that extra, unexpected person.

The two plummet down to the lower deck of the ship and land with a crash. They bounce a few times before coming to a halt. Aang's glider closes again to a staff. Both lie on the deck for a moment. Zuko's eyes narrow in anger. Zuko begins rising, a look of persistence on his face. Aang rises and assume a fighting stance, looking very unsure of himself.

"Looks like I underestimated you " Zuko says.

"Wouldn't be the first time that has happened to me" Aang replies thinking back to some of the fights that he had gone through when he was still Naruto.

"Well, I'll be careful not to repeat the mistake" Zuko replied.

Zuko starts attacking but Aang manages to deflect the Firebending attack by spinning his glider around like a baton. However, he propels himself by accident into the air and lands on the ledge of the deck. He leans precariously over the side, unsteadily balancing himself, but manages to regain his balance only for Zuko to fire another blast at him. He twirls his glider again to deflect the attack. Two more blasts are fired his way before he loses his grip on his glider and the object spins away. The staff falls several feet away. Aang ducks, spins and leaps out of the way of blasts and lands on the very ledge, struggling to keep his balance. A growl then distracts both fighters. Aang averts his gaze and catches sight of Appa heading towards the ship.

"What is that?" Zuko asks.

"Appa!" Aang states in an ecstatic voice.

He then turn back to Zuko in time to see him hurl more fire blasts his way. Aang holds up his hands in defense, but the last blast seemingly knocks him out cold and he falls backward off the ship into the water where he slowly sinks.

Aang hears Katara's voice calling out to him and almost immediately afterwards feels his Avatar link activating, and he loses control of his moments as he open his, now glowing, eyes and he frowns angrily. He steadies himself in the water and begins swiveling around, a waterspout forming around him. He rockets upward and erupts from the surface, riding a humongous spinning water vortex.

Zuko looks up in horror when he sees an enormous shadow cover his ship, only to see snake-like water vortex with Aang as it's head. Aang guides the vortex down so that he lands on the deck and then he summons some water from behind him. He then brings his hands around behind his head. The water swirls around him, forming a protective circle, before spreading outward, knocking Zuko and several soldiers off their feet. Zuko falls over the edge of the ship with a cry of surprise. Meanwhile, Sokka and Katara are leaning over the side of Appa's saddle watching in shock.

"Did you see what he just did?" Katara asked, surprised since she didn't think Aang could use waterbending yet.

"Now that was some Waterbending!" Sokka states in an impressed tone.

Aang then on the deck as he collapses onto the ground from exhaustion, his eyes and tattoos ceasing to glow. Appa growls and lands on the deck and speeds up getting to the ship. Just before they land Aang starts to slowly sit up, though his movements are jerky.

Katara and Sokka slide down and quickly run toward Aang.

"Aang! Are you okay?" Katara asks as she kneels down beside him.

"Hey, Katara. Hey, Sokka." Aang says weakly "Thanks for coming."

"Well, I couldn't let you have all the glory." Sokka replies.

"I dropped my staff." Aang states.

"Got it!" Sokka says before getting up, running over, grabbing a hold of the staff and trying to lift the staff. This effort is impaired however, because Zuko's hand is firmly gripping the other end. Sokka appears horrified as Zuko attempts to pull himself upward onto the deck. The two struggle for a bit and then Sokka pokes Zuko repeatedly in the head with the end of the staff. Zuko grunts and falls backward as he lets go of the staff. He falls off the side of the ship, but manages to grasp the anchor chain.

"Ha! That's from the Water Tribe!" Sokka exclaims.

He then looks over to see Appa rise from a puddle of water after Katara helped Aang to climb atop his head. Katara still stands beside the large beast while Aang lies on top of his head. Katara sees three of the soldiers, who where knocked down by Aang's water attack, rise and menacingly approach her. Katara takes a step back and then slowly and precariously bends a stream of water from the puddle, causing the men to slow down and gasp in surprise. She swings her arms around in an attempt to whip them, however, only succeeds in freezing a channel of water behind her on the deck, encasing Sokka's legs in ice in the process.

"Katara!" Sokka complains

The soldiers resume their approach. Katara turns around, her back facing them and draws another stream of water. She closes her eyes tightly, swings her arms behind her and turns around to see one of the soldiers completely frozen in a casing of ice, his arm extended outward to her, still twitching in effort to grab her. She backs away slowly, but then turns around and quickly runs toward Appa. She begins mounting Appa while Sokka is trying to cut himself free by smashing his icy chains with his boomerang.

"Hurry up, Sokka!" Katara yells.

"I'm just a guy with a boomerang." Sokka mutters to himself as he frees his left foot. "I didn't ask for all this flying and magic!" He manages to break free and races up Appa's tail "Yip-yip! Yip-yip!" he yells as he jumps into the saddle.

Appa grunts and takes flight, flying past the cabin of the ship. Iroh emerges on deck, having just woken up from a nap. Iroh rubs his eyes and stares up in surprise. While Appa is flying away Iroh quickly help Zuko back to the ship and together they fire a blast of fire after Appa but Aang redirects it with an airblast from his staff causing it to go into a nearby cliffside. The impact causes an avalanche of snow and ice to begin falling. Zuko looks up in horror at the event, raising one arm protectively. The front of the ship becomes buried in a mass of snow and ice while Appa climbs higher and higher. The trio laugh as they escape successfully. Aang waves goodbye as Appa disappears around the cliff.

Zuko bends over in rage on the deck with Iroh erecting himself behind him.

"Good news for the Fire Lord." Iroh states "The Fire Nation's greatest threat is just a little kid."

Zuko lifts his head and rises while his uncle is speaking. "That "kid", Uncle, just did this." He states in suppressed anger while indicating towards the damage done to the ship "I won't underestimate him again." He then yells to the soldiers while pointing at the piles of snow covering the front of the ship. "Dig this ship out and follow them!" He turns around to see the soldiers working on freeing the once Katara froze "As soon as you're done with that." He adds slightly embarrassed.

* * *

><p>Appa soars lazily in the sky while the sun is beginning to set. Aang is perched on the rim of the saddle, while Sokka and Katara sit at the back of it.<p>

"How did you do that? With the water?" Katara asked "I thought you didn't know waterbending but that was the most amazing waterbending I've ever seen!

Aang [] "I don't know how I did it exactly." Aang said quietly while having his head slightly downcast and sitting on the edge of the saddle "In a way I didn't actually do it. Being the Avatar I have a link to all previous Avatars and when I am in danger they can guide me in order to protect myself. However I have only marginal control in that state so I fear becoming a danger to those around me."

"Why did you ask me to keep you being the Avatar secret only to reveal it to everyone moments later." Katara then asked.

"Because I realized that being an airbender people, especially from the fire-nation, would assume I was the Avatar anyway" Aang stated. "So people hunting me wouldn't stop just because I pretended to be a normal Airbender. By admitting to be the Avatar, however, I can give people hope and hopefully gain allies faster."

"Well, if we want to give people hope you will need to master the different elements, starting with water, right?" Katara asked.

"That's what the monks told me." Aang said, "After that comes earth and then fire."

"So let's go to the North Pole, where you can master Waterbending." Katara stated.

This made Aang smile, "We can learn it together" He states happily which makes Katara smile and blush slightly.[

She quickly turns and faces her brother "And, Sokka, I'm sure you'll get to knock some Firebender heads on the way." She states.

"I'd like that." Sokka states contently "I'd really like that."

"Then we're in this together!" Katara states.

Aang pulls out a scroll "Alright, but before we learn Waterbending, we have some serious business to attend to." He states and uses Airbending to situate himself onto the saddle and unrolls the scroll, revealing a map of the World. "Here, here and here." While stating this, he points to three locations, two in the Earth Kingdom, one in Air Nomad territory.

"What's there?" Katara asks

"Well the first place is the southern air temple, I need to see it for myself, just to be sure" Aang states. "Then waaay over here, we'll surf on the backs of giant koi fish." This causes Katara and Sokka stare at him in wonder. "Then in the forest over here we'll ride the hog monkeys."[The siblings glance at each other. "They don't like people riding them, but that's what makes it fun!"


	3. The Southern Air Temple

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: Well here's the next chapter. I was told that it wasn't clear what difference Naruto being apart of this story would make so I tried to hint at some of the future changes in this chapter.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 3<strong>

Aang sits on the Appa's head and checks the knots that tie the reins to Appa's horns. Katara is sitting on the saddle and is fiddling with their luggage.

"I don't know whether I should be excited or apprehensive of going back to the Air temple" Aang said "I remember it as being one of the most beautiful places in the world, but that was a hundred years and a war ago."

"I wish I could say something to make it better, but I don't really know what to expect either" Katara admitted. "Are you sure you want to go?"

"I need to know whether it's really gone" Aang said, "And there's a place I need to visit."

"Okay" Katara said "Anyway I've been meaning to ask you something, but since it is connected to your other secret I needed to ask away from Sokka" She said pointing to the Sokka who was currently sleeping in a sleeping bag not far from them.

"Okay, I'll leave two clones, one looking like you, in case he wakes up, while we go over there" Aang said pointing at a beach some way away from them. He then made two shadow clones and had one henge into Katara.

"I don't know how comfortable I am with your ability to look exactly like me, but I'll just ignore it for now since it's helpful." Katara stated.

"Since I only based it on the basic knowledge I have of your looks it really only looks like you on the surface" Aang stated. "The amount of knowledge needed to make it a true copy of you makes it unrealistic to even try"

They soon arrive on the beach and Aang turns to Katara expectingly.

"I was wondering" Katara began "whether you could try and teach me some of the abilities you had in the other world where you originally came from"

"Wow, that wasn't the question I was expecting" Aang said "I thought it would be more along the line of asking me to prove that I was from another world."

"I have never heard of anyone, Avatar or not, who could create copies of themselves" Katara stated "Plus my instincts told me that you where telling the truth"

"Fair enough, I guess" Aang said "As for teaching you; I definitely intend to try, but I don't want you to get your hopes up. The rules of nature in your world might be vastly different then they are in mine, which could prevent most if not all my abilities to be learnt."

"But at least two of your abilities work" Katara stated.

"Yes for me" Aang countered "Which just might be a side effect of me coming from a world where I could do this."

"But you'll try and teach me" Katara said hopefully.

"Of course I will, you're one of my precious people after all" Aang stated, making Katara blush "Learning this might save your life some day."

"Will we need to keep this a secret from Sokka?" Katara then asks.

"No, I will trust him with the secret." Aang said "He might like poking fun at almost anything, but I believe I can trust him with my secret."

"Thank you" Katara said, glad that she didn't have to keep it a secret from her brother.

"I do have something else I wanted to talk to you about" Aang stated "something personal."

"What is it" Katara said a little apprehensive.

"You see.. The thing is.. hmm" Aang stated, then took a deep breath "I like you. A lot" Katara blushed "But the thing is, I am the last Airbender, If I do not get children who are airbenders then that bending form might be lost forever. The fact that you are a waterbender makes it possible that any children I had with you could become waterbenders rather then airbenders. Therefore my options are limited." He took another breath "I could follow my heart and possibly ruin the world because the Avatar circle will get broken the next time an Airbender is needed. The second option I can think of is finding a non-bender to love, that way any children we have, provided they have bending abilities, will have a high chance of being Airbenders. The last option that I can think of is having multiple partners, since that would increase the chances of one of them having an Airbender child."

Katara thought about it for a moment. "Why exactly is it you are telling me this now?" She asked.

"Because I wanted you to know." Aang said "my heart is screaming at me to only love you and to close of my heart to any other girl, however I know I couldn't live with myself if this would eventually lead to the loss of the Avatar and perhaps the destruction of this world. Therefore you need to know that if you ever want to pursue a relationship with me, then there will have to be others, and I will love these others as well."Aang took a deep breath "If you found out later I fear that you would come to hate me."

"I don't know what to say Aang" Katara responds after a moments thought.

"You don't need to say anything, Katara" Aang said "I didn't tell you to force you to make a decision now." He then looks back to where Appa is. "Anyway, let's go back and wake Sokka so we can go to the temple."

As they start going back Aang thinks 'Why can't I shake the feeling that Hinata is somehow responsible for me thinking of the third option'.

* * *

><p>When they get back to Appa, Aang walks over to Sokka "Wake up Sokka! Air Temple here we come!"<p>

"Uggh! Sleep now. Temple later." Sokka states and turns away from Aang and falls asleep, snoring as soon as his eyes close. Aang blinks in surprise only to smile mischievously a moment later. Aang grabs a small, thin stick.

"Sokka! Wake up!" Aang cries out in alarm and moves the stick up and down the sleeping bag, only touching with the tip of the stick. "There's a prickle snake in your sleeping bag!"

Sokka lazily opens one eye before what was said break through his sleepy stupor "Ahh!" He yells in horror quickly rising and hopping around while still in the sleeping bag. "Get it off! Get it off!" After two hops, Sokka slams flat to the ground right at Katara's feet. Katara giggles at Sokka's fall while Sokka's face contorts in anger.

"Great! You're awake! Let's go!" Aang states happily.

Appa is flying above the clouds towards the Patola Mountain range. Aang is sitting on it's head while Katara on the front part the saddle with Sokka sitting in the rear part. Sokka's stomach then growls and Sokka get's a look of dismay on his face.

"Hey, stomach? Be quiet, alright?" He says to it in annoyance "I'm trying to find us some food."

Sokka starts to go through the luggage and gets out a bag. He looks at it for a moment while it sways in the wind. With his tongue out of his mouth full anticipation, he sticks his hand in the bag and starts to go through it. He looks surprised for a moment, but then quickly turns the bag upside down to pour the contents into his hand, which turns out to only be a few crumbs of Blubbered Seal Jerky.

"Hey! Who ate all of my blubbered seal jerky?" Sokka asks the others accusingly.

"Oh. That was food?" Aang asks in surprise. Then continues in a happy tone"I used it to start the campfire last night. Sorry."

"You what?" Sokka asked in shock "No wonder the flames smelled so good."

At that point Appa starts to ascends up to some mountains.

"The Patola Mountain range!" Aang declares "We're almost there! Time to see whether the fire-nation really managed to attack the airbenders or not. One thing that is bugging me is the fact that you should only be able to reach the temple via sky-byson so how would the fire-nation have gotten here."

"Still, don't get your hopes up, okay Aang?" Katara said.

"Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst" Aang said sadly.

"That is one way to put it" Katara agreed.

Appa begins his ascend up the side of a mountain.

"Yip yip!" Aang calls out as they raise up higher and spiral upwards around a mountain to find the optimal place to get the rest of the way. Soon Appa finds it and flies upwards through some clouds. Moments later they fly over a ridge and a large temple comes into view.

"There it is." Aang states "The Southern air temple."

"Aang, it's amazing!" Katara says in awe.

Aang is visibly excited at the sight of the temple. "We're home, buddy! We're home!" He states though his eyes have some apprehension in them.

Soon they arrive at a platform near the part leading to the Air temple and they have Appa land. After making sure Appa is comfortable they start making their way up the path with Aang running at the front, excitedly looking back at the two siblings that are following behind him.

"So when do I get something to eat?" Sokka asks Katara as they walk (Aang being outside of hearing range) while he clutches his stomach with both hands. The bags under his eyes are darkened and he has a very annoyed look on his face.

"You're lucky enough to be one of the first outsiders to ever visit an Airbender temple, and all you can think about is food?" Katara asks in an irretated voice as they walk up to Aang who's waiting for them at the next corner.

"I'm just a simple guy, with simple needs" Sokka simply states moments before they reach Aang who is pointing at something in front of him.

"So that's where my friends and I would play Airball," He says. The siblings join him to see a stadium consisting of many tall poles. "and over there" He continues pointing further to the right "is where the bison would sleep, and..." but then he stops with a sigh and a sad expression on his face as he looks at the deserted remains of his home.

"What's wrong?" Katara asks, though she already had and idea of what was bothering him.

"This place used to be full of monks and lemurs and bison. Now there's just a bunch of weeds." He states in sadness. "I can't believe how much things have changed."

At this point Katara and Sokka quickly approach Aang. As they pull up beside him they see the saddened look on his face.

"So uh, this Airball game." Sokka says cheerfully, trying to distract Aang "How do you play?"

Katara smiles at her brother and Aang's face clears up. He smiles too as he looks at Sokka from the corners of his eyes.

A while later Sokka looking standing on a pole in the Airball court with a look of concentrated while guarding a goal. On the other side of the court Aang also stands on one of the tall poles, suspending a hollow ball in the air with Airbending. He lets the ball roll over his shoulders, tosses it from side to side and then lazily tosses it up in the air. He looks and smiles innocently at Sokka with his hands behind his back and closes his eyes. Sokka looks surprised at the upwards moment of the ball but quickly refocuses on Aang just as he opens one eye as the ball comes down again. The Airbender jumps up and kicks the ball away with a powerful Air swipe. It rapidly shoots across the poles, changing direction as it crashes into several poles, but steadily moving closer toward Sokka's goal. Sokka opens his mouth in shock, then he grunts as the ball hits him right in the stomach. The speed of impact sends Sokka and the ball flying backwards, right through the rotation door of the goal behind him and crashing into the snow behind the goal. Aang laughs as he jumps up in joy.

"Aang seven!" He states, then forms a 0 with is hands "Sokka zero!"

Sokka lying in a pile of of twigs, one of the is lying on his head while he looks a bit miserable. Katara stand in the background looking at her brother.

"Making him feel better is putting me in a world of hurt." Sokka says while he erects himself. Then his eyes go wide when he spots a Fire Nation helmet lying in the snow. It has been battered by the elements and shows signs of cracks and burns. He looks up at his sister. "Katara, check this out." he says and points at the helmet.

"Fire Nation." Katara states sadly.

"We should tell him." Sokka says

"Aang!" Katara yells out "There's something you need to see."

Aang runs to them from the Airball court, still playing with the hollow ball. "Okay!" He yells while getting closer to them. As he draws closer Katara's determination to tell him vanishes as she realises that showing him will destroy any hope he has left, something she does not wish to do. She glances at the helmet and then back at the approaching Aang. Suddenly she shifts her weight and brings her arms up. With one swift movement she swings her arms back, manipulating the overhanging snow to fall down, obscuring the helmet and Sokka from sight.

"What is it?" Aang asks as he reaches them. Sokka brushes the snow of his head and looks at his sister.

Innocently holding her hands behind her back Katara says "Uh... just a new Waterbending move I learned."

Aang looks at her sceptically, getting the feeling that she is hiding something. Then he decides to ignore it for now "Nice one! But enough practicing," He states, regaining some of his exitement and starts to walk aways from them. "we have a whole temple to see!"

"You know, you can't protect him forever." Sokka says to Katara while brushing of the last of the snow. Katara sadly slants her eyes and walks after Aang.

The trio soon arrive in a courtyard with a fountain in the middle. The water in the fountain is frozen. Sokka and Katara stand at the entrance of the courtyard while Aang runs up ahead excitedly.

"Katara, Firebenders were here." Sokka tells Katara sternly "You can't pretend they weren't." Katara just walks passed her brother. Sokka pulls up beside Katara and she starts talking.

"I can for Aang's sake." She states "If he finds out the Fire Nation invaded his home, he'll be devastated."

"Hey guys!" Aang calls out while standing in front of a statue an elderly man with a mustache and a distinct round necklace sitting in lotus with his fists bumped to each other in front of him "I want you to meet somebody!" He states while pointing at the statue.

"Who's that?" Sokka asks

"Monk Gyatso! The greatest Airbender in the world." Aang states with pride "He taught me everything I know about Airbending and this world." Aang bows to the statue while Sokka looks slightly confused at Aangs saying 'this world' rather then 'the world' but decided to ignore it for now. As Aang continues bowing to the statue Katara realises that he is lost in a memory of Gyatso. When Aang erects himself with a sad look upon his face Katara places a hand on his shoulder.

"You must miss him." She says in understanding.

"Yeah." Aang says, then start to walk away.

"Where are you going?" Katara asked curiously.

Aang starts walking up some stairs that lead to a corridor behind the statue. He looked back while answering. "The Air Temple Sanctuary" He says. "There's someone I'm ready to meet." Aang then enters the hallway. Katara looks questioningly at Sokka, who just shrugs. They both start walking after Aang.

Together they walk down the corridor, Aang slightly in front of the others. The round symbol of intertwined air currents, the national symbol of the Air Nomads is embedded in the floor of the corridor, surrounded by two square shapes that form some sort of sun together. Soon the trio reach the entrance of the Air Temple Sanctuary. The door has a combination of metal colored pipes and three, blue, rolled up, pipes that are similar looking and arranges like the symbol for Airbending on it. The large wooden door is framed by the branches of an old tree standing on the left of it and the hallway is illuminated by sunlight that falls through little, round windows.

"But Aang, no one could have survived in there for a hundred years." Katara says as they reach the door"

"It's not impossible." Aang point out, then spreads his arms. "I survived in the iceberg for that long."

"Good point." Katara said while touching her chin with a finger.]

Aang glances hopeful at her over his shoulder. "Katara, whoever's or whatever's in there might help figure out this Avatar thing!" He states.

"And whoever's in there might have" Sokka says, completely ignoring the 'Whatever's part and annoying Katara who had a pretty good idea of what he was going to say "a medley of delicious] cured meats!" he continues, drooling.

Full anticipation and longing, Sokka charges the door, but it won't budge and he just smacks into it, head first. He quickly turns around and puts his back to it, trying to push the giant door open. When the door doesn't move, he sighs, slides down disappointed and rests up against the door.

"I don't suppose you have a key?" Sokka asks Aang.

"The key, Sokka, is Airbending." Aang states and then he takes a deep breath. He spreads his arms and thrusts them forward, sending an air current into both of the tubes on the door. one air current is sent through the right side and travels through the pipe. When it reached the end the wind makes one of the blue curled tube turn around. When it does, the tube changes colors to purple and the wind blows out like a horn. The process is repeated for the other two blue tubes as well. When the three blue tubes have turned and become purple the door unlocks and slowly starts to open.

When the door is completely open Aang raises his hand besides his mouth. "Hello?" he yells slowly entering the sanctuary. "Anyone home?" he tries again. Sokka and Katara walk in behind Aang. Together the three of them venture further down into the sanctuary. The only light comes from the open door behind them and illuminates the room with bluish light. They stop and Sokka holds a hand to his brow to look up ahead. Switch to an overview shot of the trio as they stand in the light that comes in through the door. Before them are a large amount of statues of people, lined up in a circular pattern. They start to walk through them, curiously looking around. Sokka halts before one of them.

"Statues? That's it?" He asks in disappointment "Where's the meat?" Meanwhile Aang and Katara have also stopped and are looking up at another statue.

"Who are all of these people?" Katara asks.

"I'm not sure." Aang states ""But it feels like I know them somehow. Look!" He says pointing at the statue of a man with Airbending mastery tattoos in front of him. "That one's an Airbender."

Katara points at the statue of a male dressed in Water Tribe clothes next to the Airbender. "And this one's a Waterbender." She looks at the other statues around them. "They're lined up in a pattern: air, water, earth and fire" She says as she points at the respective statues.

"That's the Avatar cycle." Aang states.

"Of course. They're Avatars." Katara states in understanding. "All these people are your past lives Aang."

"Wow! There are a lot more then I thought there would be." Aang saíd. To know just how many souls where part of the Avatar link was frightening to him, since he only had minimum control in the Avatar state. Ignoring the fact that they the people controlling him where good people it was far to similar to Kyubi taking him over.

Aang starts to walk down the circular pattern, while stands next to Sokka who has his arms crossed.

"Past lives?" Sokka says sceptically, as Aang stops before a statue "Katara, you really believe in that stuff?"

"It's true." Katara says, looking at the statue of an elderly man with a beard that is in front of Aang. "When the Avatar dies, he's reincarnated into the next nation in the cycle."

"Technically it is a link to past souls of the Avatar that is passed on, not one soul in particular." Aang speculates aloud "Otherwise all Avatars should be almost the same, especially when the link fully manifests itself and I really don't think that is the case. But it does give me a close connection with all of the previous Avatar that gives the impression of having shared the sa... " As he says this he notices the eyes of the statue in front of him gleam for a second which causes him to stop talking and look at it, completely mezmerized. Katara walks up behind him, grabs his shoulders and shakes him a bit.

"Aang! Snap out of it!" She says loudly and looks at him worriedly while he smiles at the statue

"Huh?" Aang says in a daze. Katara curiously follows his gaze and looks at the statue as well.

"Who is that?" She asks.

"That's Avatar Roku." Aang states "The Avatar before me." Sokka walks up them.

"You were a Firebender?" Sokka asks "No wonder I didn't trust you when you first met."

Katara ignores him and instead looks more closely at the statue "There's no writing." She says "How do you know his name?"

"I'm not sure." Aang states "But most likely the link told me"

"You just couldn't get any weirder." Sokka states with a irritated growl and a crossing of his arms.

The trio startles and stares witch big eyes in front of them when they hear something. They turn around. In the blue light that comes in through the door a long-eared shadow of another being can be seen approaching them. Katara and Aang hide behind one statue while Sokka hides behind another holding his club ready. The shadow creeps closer. Katara clutched her teeth in fright while Aang looks in front of him trying to figure out what it could be. Sokka holds his hand to his mouth as he addresses them.

"Firebender. Nobody make a sound." Sokka says.

"You're making a sound!" Katara states in irritation.

Sokka puts his finger before his mouth and makes a "Shhhh!" sound. Katara looks scared in front of her again.

Sokka raises his club. "That Firebender won't know what hit him." He whispers and stands up.

Sokka steps from behind the statue when he fells the being is close enough, his club at the ready, but lowers it as soon as he sees that it is just a small animal. Aang and Katara peek form behind their statue as well. Aang recognizes it as a flying lemur. The creature sits down and lowers his ears, blinking at the threesome.

"Lemur!" Aang says excitedly

"Dinner!" Sokka exclaims while drooling.

The animal pricks his ears and slightly tilts his head.

"Don't listen to him." Aang tells the Lemur in an reassuring voice. "You're going to be my new pet." He then glares at Sokka.

Meanwhile Sokka is still drooling and says in a challenging tone "Not if I get him first!"

Sokka stretches out his hand while he excitedly lunges himself at the animal from behind the statue. Aang runs up at the lemur as well. The lemur arcs his back in fright, his ears, hair and tail standing upright as the snatching hands of the boys draw closer. It startles, quickly turns around and makes a break for it. Sokka barely misses the animal and falls down. Aang nimbly avoids tripping as well by using Sokka's head as a stepping stone. Sokka quickly gets up and runs after Aang and the lemur as they exit the sanctuary.

"Wait! Come back!" Aang yells as he follow the lemur down the hallway. T

"I want to eat you!" Sokka yells out.

Aang and Sokka slides around a corner continuing their pursuit. Sokka passes Aang and shoves him back taking the lead. Aang pulls up next to him again, so Sokka takes out his club and takes a swing at Aang's legs. Aang nimbly avoids the club and uses his Airbending to run on the side of the wall, laughing loudly with amusement. Aang runs up ahead and then returns to running on the floor again. He quickly turns around and shoots an Airball at Sokka, which knocks his legs from underneath him. Sokka flips in the air before smacking face first on the ground, his hood falling over his head as he lands. The lemur exits the corridor and sits on the ledge of the balcony, looking back at the approaching Aang. He pricks his ears again and takes flight with a scared look on his face. Aang briefly glances over to see if Sokka is still following. He then exits the hallway and, without slowing down, jumps over the ledge of the balcony, behind the lemur. The Airbender turns in the air and uses some of the rocks to break his freefall, jumping from one rock to the other. When Sokka reaches the balcony he stops there while looking over the rim.

"Hey! No fair!" He yells out.

Aang is freefalling again with his mouth wide open in a smile and his eyes slightly squinted and watering by the speed of his fall.

The lemur landed on the ground at the bottom of the cliff. Aang quickly used airbending to slow his fall. When he landed on the ground he jump forward in an attempt to catch the lemur. The lemur jumps out of the way and runs through some ripped drapes, which once formed a tent.

"Hey! Come back!" Aang says as he pushes the decaying curtain of drapes out of the way and happily looks around. "Come on out little lemur! That hungry guy won't bother you anymore." He says as he pushes aside another curtain of drapes. He looks into the room beyond the drape but takes a sharp breath in shock. Inside is a skeleton lying in the snow, surrounded by many more skeletons of Fire Nation soldiers.

"So they where here" Aang says and enters the room and looks around with a sad expression on his face. He takes a closer look at the skeleton sees that it has with a round necklace that supports the symbol of Airbending.

"Gyatso." Aang says, devastated. He might have thought he was prepared for the knowledge that the fire nation attacked the temple, but he was not prepared to find out for sure by seeing the skeleton of his mentor and father figure surrounded by skeletons of firebenders. Aang drops to his knees in the background and lets out a mourning sigh just as Sokka pulls the drapes aside and looks around though still not seeing the skeletons.

"Hey Aang! You find my dinner yet?" Sokka says, but Aang just continues sitting on his knees, his head cupped in his hands. Sokka walks toward him. "Aang, I wasn't really going to eat the lemur, okay?" he says reassuringly as he approaches. Then he notices the skeletons "Oh man!" he says sadly. He places a hand on Aang shoulder "Come on Aang. Everything will be alright." He then says "Let's get out of here."

Suddenly, Aang's arrow tattoos begin to glow a bluish white. He lifts his head to show his eyes glowing in the same color. Sokka retracts his hands and gasps for air in fright. Inside the sanctuary Katara is walking down the circular pattern of statues. She stops before and looks at the statue of Avatar Roku, when a glowing white light starts coming from it's eyes. The light then spreads to the other statues as one by one, their eyes start to gleam. Katara stares at Roku in shock, before realishing what it means.

"Aang!" Katara says in worry before she turns around and sprints away.

* * *

><p>Across the world similar things where happening in other temples indicating the full return of the Avatar. In the fire nation this meant that they need to send word to the fire lord, while in other countries it was a sign that gave them great hope.<p>

* * *

><p>Aang was aware that in the real world he had been began forming whirlwind begins at his feet. The wind was kicking away a bone. The wind even started to form a sphere around him. Far away he heard Sokka's words, but was unable to react to them at all, since the Avatar link was mostly in control of his body. He then hear Sokka scream and the building around him getting throw apart. When he feels the air sphere expand into a raging tornado with him in its center he start fighting harder to regain control.<p>

That was when he suddenly found himself in a white room, though he still knew exactly what was happening with his body. He looked down and was surprised to see that his body looked like Naruto rather then Aang. Then five other people appeared around him. Kyubi, Hinata, Sasuke, Tsunade and Aang.

"I thought you where gone with the merge" Naruto/Aang said.

"We are mostly" The Kyubi says. "except for Aang we are merely echoes of our past selves, but we are still with you."

"What about Aang then" Naruto/Aang.

"He is completely a part of you, he is like a second conscience." Kyubi says "He lost control of the body, but still has some effect on you personally. That is why, even though you know what damage it could do to the world, you still haven't completely dismissed the possibility to be with Katara and only Katara, even if you told her otherwise. And he is the reason you didn't complete bury Zuko's ship in ice"

"Okay, but why am I here now then?" Naruto/Aang asked.

"Because you needed to know that even if we aren't physically with you, we are still with you and supporting you, whatever happens" Hinata said. "also you needed to be aware of the effect Aang has on you, even if it mostly your choice of words and reactions to some things. As you probably noticed he hasn't really said anything in here and that is because he is mostly apart of you anyway, so he doesn't need to really say anything."

"Also he is more of the guiding force of the Avatar link at this point which is why you have absolutely no control" Tsunade added.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Katara had joined Sokka "What happened?" She yells as him over the winds, her face worried.<p>

"He found out Firebenders killed Gyatso!" Sokka shouted back.

"Oh no! It's his Avatar spirit!" She yells, raising her hand to protect herself from wind and debris."He must have triggered it! I'm going to try and calm him down!" She then closes and eye against the wind and starts to make her way toward Aang.

"Well, do it!" Sokka says while holding on to the rock in an attempt not the get blown away. "Before he blows us off the mountain!"

Katara fights the storm to get to Aang. The sphere of wind that surrounds Aang slowly starts to rise in the air and Katara is pushed back by the strong wind currents that fill the remains of the building as it ascends.

Soon Aang stops ascending but strong winds are rampaging through the rubble of the destroyed building. Katara and Sokka are holding on for dear life on some stones, trying not to get blown away.

"Aang! I know you're upset and I know how hard it is to lose the people you love." Katara shouts calmly with a sad expression on her face "I went through the same thing when I lost my mom." she continues diverting her eyes at the memory. "Monk Gyatso and the other Airbenders may be gone, but you still have a family. Sokka and I!"At this Sokka opens his eyes and glances at his sister. "We're your family now!" Aang begins to descend. Sokka and Katara watch him lower himself back to the ground; the winds start to die down and the air sphere that surrounded Aang disappears. However his eyes and tattoos are still glowing bluish white. Katara and Sokka pull up next to him, one on each side.

"Katara and I aren't going to let anything happen to you." Sokka says gently "Promise."

Meanwhile Katara takes Aang's hand. The moment she does, the glowing fades away of his hands fade followed closely the arrow on his head and his eyes. His eyes close before he collapses from exhaustion in Katara's arms.

"I'm sorry." he says in a sad and tired.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault." Katara said.

"Guess this confirms that they found a way to access this air-temple and that means they found the other ones, too." Aang says then opens his eyes "I really am the last Airbender."

Katara is about to hug him when she sees something weird about his eyes. "Um Aang, do Avatars normally get purple eyes with rings rippling through them?" She asks him.

Aang frowns" I am sure that I have heard that description before, or maybe seen eyes like that, but I don't know if it was related to the Avatar" He admits.

"What else could it relate to" Sokka ask confused.

"Well I guess this is as good a time as any" Aang says, straightening up. "You see Sokka when the Avatar link travelled from Sokka to the next reincarnation it hit something along the way. That something was a soul from another dimension that then ended up being transported with the Avatar link to its target. The soul spend twelve years experiencing Aangs life without actually controlling anything, which in the end caused the soul to see itself as being Aang as well. When the Avatar link took over control the first time it forced the soul to the forefront, causing it to merge with Aang and create a kind of joint consciousness." He decided to leave out the part of parts of the old Aang still being separate and trying to influence him. Sokka looked shocked enough already, so he thought it was a good idea to keep it simple.

"Um, ah, what," Sokka said before fainting.

* * *

><p>After Sokka woke up Aang explained everything in detail, and told Sokka that this was not something he should ever try to poke fun at. Aang also explained that he was intending to train the both of them. Sokka was all for learning more about fighting, though he didn't show much interest in learning about 'Chakra magic abilities' as he called them.<p>

After that Aang spent some time figuring out his eyes. After seeing them in a reflection he realized that it was the same eyes as both Nagato and Madara had had, the rinnegan. How he had gotten them he wasn't sure, but knew part of it was Sasuke merging with him. When finding out how to deactivate it he had also found out that he had both the Sharingan and byakugan. He also found out that even though he had them he had absolutely no clue about how to use them. Unlike those that come by the dojutsu naturally, he had no idea about how to use them. He couldn't even properly activate the sharingan and using the byakugan just made him dizzy because his vision flickered all over the place. He also couldn't access any of the abilities that Nagato had shown, or more precisely he didn't know how he was suppose to do them. In the end he decided to save working with them till after he had trained Katara and Sokka up a bit.

They where now getting ready to leave the air temple, Aang standing in front of Roku's statue again. Sokka stands of to a side while Katara pulls up next to Aang.

"Everything's packed." She tells him "You ready to go?"

"How is Roku supposed to help me if I can't talk to him?" Aang asks softly, though a slight frustration can be heard in his voice.

"Maybe you'll find a way." Katara says, trying to reassure him

They glance at each other when they hear something behind them. They turn around and see the flying lemur standing on its back legs in the middle of the doorway. The animal as it jumps to the right, toward where Sokka is standing. The animal reaches his feet and drops the load he was carrying: a variety of fruits. The lemur quickly dashes away as Sokka sits down and starts to stuff his face with the fruit, taking large bites of two different pieces of fruit. Aang and Katara smile at Sokka.

"Looks like you made a new friend, Sokka" Aang says happily.

Can't talk!" Sokka says looking up with an exhilarated look upon his face while he pushes the food into his mouth with his hands. "Must eat!" He takes another big bite.

The flying lemur climbs onto Aang and hides behind his head, his tail curled around Aang's neck

"Hey, little guy!" He says looking at the lemur from the corners of his eye.

* * *

><p>After they return to Appa Aang stands next to him with Momo perched on his arm.<p>

"You, me and Appa;" Aang says to the lemur "we're all that's left of this place. We have to stick together." He then turns to the siblings who are fiddling with their luggage "Katara, Sokka," He yells and they turn to look at Aang, Sokka still eating a peach. "say hello to the newest member of our family."

As Aang approaches the duo Katara asks: "What are you going to name it?"

Sokka is about to take another bite of the peach he's eating, when the lemur suddenly leaps off Aang's arm, takes the peach and returns. The animal starts to nibble from it.

"Momo." Aang states,then laughs along with Katara when they see Sokka still stands there, mouth open and hand in front of his mouth, ready to take a bite of the peach that is no longer there., however, he has no peach anymore.

Soon they are leaving the Southern Air Temple. Aang is sadly staring back at it, leaning on the luggage that is tied at the back on Appa's saddle. Momo chitters quietly as they fly further away from the temple. Dark clouds slowly move in front of the temple, obscuring it from view.

AN:

**Poll:**

I will make a poll about who Aang should be paired with. The choices are:

Katara

Suki

Ty Lee

Harem

Voting will last until either the next chapter or the one after that.

**Dojutsu explanation:**

This is just how the Dojutsu are gained based on the rules in my story. This is not necessarily how they are really gained.

Byakugan: Born with generally improved eyesight, gain the advanced ability through training. Straight forward.

Sharingan: Gained by being in danger (self-preservation, not protection of others) and/or hatred. Advanced form gained by killing one's best friend. If a normal Sharingan eye is freely given to someone else the advance form can be gained through training. The highest level of the sharingan is archived by taking an advanced eye from someone else.

Rinnegan: Activated by failing to protect someone you cherish. Requires high chakra reserves in general to work. Permanent activation can happen if one fails to protect a cherished person a second time, though it isn't always the case. Chances increase if the person with the rinnegan is somehow, unwillingly, responsible for the death.

Persons of interest.

Nagato: Toby raped Nagato's Uzumaki mother thereby combining the high chakra reserves of the Uzumaki clan with the sharingan/rinnegan gene. When the war started happening he took advantage and cast a genjutsu on some leaf ninja causing them to enter the house of Nagato parent and kill them. This caused the rinnegan to activate. Therefore Tobi could claim that he gave Nagato his eyes.

Aang/Naruto: Even though he wasn't present when the fire-nation attacked he still feels that he fail protecting them when he ran away, therefore he activated the rinnegan. Because he had already activated one dojutsu, figuring out how to do the same with the byakugan was easy. He still has problems with the sharingan because he has control of his hatred and he focuses more on protecting other then protecting himself.

Madara: After his fight with the first Hokage where he gained his wood-release he also gained the chakra needed for the rinnegan. His perceived failure to protect his clan from being subjugated by the senju clan allowed him to gain it.


	4. The Warriors of Kyoshi

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: As you probably noticed the update rate of this story is falling. This is both due to the story deviating more and more from canon but also because I have other things taking things I need to do right now so my writting time is limited. I have no intention of abandoning this story. At the very least I will complete the book of water and if the interest is high enough I intend to take it all the way to the defeat of Ozai.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

"... And that is how you learn to mould Chakra" Aang ended his explaination. "Now you can use the trip to do those exercises. If you have questions just ask and I will do what I can to help you."

"Speaking of trip, do you know where we are going at all." Sokka asked. While Sokka was asking this Katara had taken out Sokka's damaged pants and started sewing them, deciding that the exercises could wait a bit longer.

"I admit that I am more used to navigating via landmarks, but I don't know that many landmarks that are guaranteed to still exits, and even if I didn't we are in surrounded by water" Aang stated indicating below them. "however by my estimate we should be there soon."

"But what are you basing those estimates on?" Sokka asked.

"A ninja doesn't reveal his tricks" Aang evaded.

"That's just an excuse to not tell us that you really do not have any idea when we will get there, isn't it" Sokka asked.

"For now just focus on learning to mould chakra" Aang stated.

"Still don't get why you want me to learn it, I already told you that I am not interested in learning your magic" Sokka stated.

"Well if you learn it you will be able to do things like this" Aang stated, then stood and started walking around Appa's neck, using chakra to keep him from falling."Hey Katara, you should see this top" he says as he is hanging upside down from Appa.

"That's great, Aang." Katara states, not looking away from her sewing.

Aang walks back up "You didn't even look."

Katara looks up "That's great! Aang" She says again.

"But I'm not doing it now." Aang says annoyed"You really should pay attention when I show these things, they might give you ideas for how you could use chakra to supplement you own skills"

Sokka waves an arm breezily at Aang like he's trying to shoo him. "Stop bugging her, airhead." He stated "You need to give girls space when they do their sewing."

Katara casts her brother an annoyed glare. "What does me being a girl have to do with sewing?" She asks in an irritated voice

Sokka, while resting with his arms behind his head replies "Simple. Girls are better at fixing pants than guys and guys are better at hunting and fighting and stuff like that." At this Katara gets an annoyed look, but Sokka continues "It's just the natural order of things."

Katara suddenly smiles. "All done with your pants!" She states showing the pants that still have a hole in them "And look what a great job I did!" She continues sarcastically and tosses the pants in Sokka's direction, hitting him in the face.

"Wait! I was just kidding." Sokka says as he sticks one arm through the large hole in his pants "I can't wear these! Katara, please!"

"Relax, Sokka." Aang says enthusiastically "Where we're going, you won't need any pants." Aang then yanks Appa's reins to the left, his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth. Appa picks up speed as he flies to the left.

* * *

><p>Soon Aang and his friends arrive at an island. After Appa has landed they quickly dismount.<p>

"We just made a pit stop yesterday." Sokka says "Shouldn't we get a little more flying done before we camp out?"

"He's right." Katara says, while Aang is looking across the water with a hand shadowing his eyes. "At this rate, we won't get to the North Pole until Spring."

"But Appa's tired, aren't you boy?" Aang said innocently. Appa doesn't react at all apart from a mild grunt, which comes across less than convincing. "And anyway there is something I want to try here anyway, so it's two birds with one stone"

"Yeah and I just bet that it's just a coincidence that Appa is tired some place where you have something you want to do" Sokka says sarcastically.

Aang then runs toward the shore, takes a sharp breath and points. "Look!" He says pointing at the bay where an Elephant Koi jumps out the water and back in, creating a giant splash. The two siblings stare in awe at the giant fish. "That's why we're here." Aang states and then starts to disrobe (causing Katara to blush and look away, though she quickly gets herself under control and turns back around).

Aang runs to the coastline and then across the water, though he quickly finds that his footing is unstable and realizes that he need to retrain his waterwalking.

Katara and Sokka are still standing on shore, looking after him.

"Am I seeing things or is he running on the water?" Sokka asks "Is that airbending, waterbending or chakra?" He adds before Katara can even reply to his first question.

"He is walking on the water, though whether it is using airbending or chakra I can't tell" Katara replies "Since he hasn't trained in waterbending I am quite sure that he isn't using that.

Meanwhile Aang is getting closer to where the Koi fish are. He dives into the water and immediately appears again, now holding on to the back fin of one of these giant animals as it jumps out of the water before diving again. On the shore Katara smiles broadly and is impressed at the sight of Aang riding the Koi fish while Sokka stares at the scene with an uninterested look upon his face and his arms crossed. Behind them Momo is jumping excitedly up and down as Aang's Koi fish reappears again.

"Hahaha hahaha!" Aang laughs from atop the fish while waving at Katara. Katara returns the wave.

Two other Koi jump out of the water behind Aang, one slightly to the left and one slightly to the right. Aang is still laughing loudly with excitement as they race through the water.

On the beach Momo is still excitedly jumping up and down while Katara addresses her brother who still has his arms crossed.

"He looks pretty good out there." Katara says with a smile.

"Are you kidding?" Sokka says in a unimpressed tone while he lazily gestures at Aang in the water. "The fish is doing all the work."

Katara then notices that Appa is about to eat some of their equipment, mistaking it for food, and quickly runs to him "No, Appa. Don't eat that!" With her only reply being a grunt.

Aang stand atop of the fish without using his hands to hold on (instead using chakra through his feat), in an attempt to impress Katara. He sees Katara runs off inland, however her movement indicate that it is in panic or urgency which means she isn't leaving to avoid looking at him. He jumps of the fish and starts (still unsteadily) to waterwalk back towards the beach. Being focused on the beach and trying to figure out what caused Katara to leave he doesn't notice the dark shadow of a large body appearing beneath the water's surface behind him heading towards the koi fish. Sokka however see it.

"There's something in the water behind you!" He yells in alarm, but Aang is still spacing out so doesn't even realize he is being spoken to. Soon Katara reappears next to her brother again while Momo is screeching in alarm as the shadow decides to go after Aang after the fish fled.

"What's wrong?" Katara ask her brother, having not seen the shadow yet.

"Aang's in trouble." Sokka tells her, indicating towards the shadow closing in on Aang "Aang!" He then calls out to get his attention.

"Get out of there!" Katara calls out as she sees the shadow.

Aang looks up to see Katara and Sokka motioning for him to exit the water by flailing their arms and calling to him from far away.

"Get back here!" Sokka yells.

Aang turns around to look behind him and sees a massive dorsal fin of an unknown creature emerge from the water directly behind him. Forgoing chakra he quickly uses airbending to propel himself towards the beach, trying to put some distance between him and the creature. As Aang is fleeing towards the beach, leaving a trail of white foam in his wake, he feels the creature following behind him, slowly gaining on him. He speeds up slightly not really seeing where he is going, except for the fact that he is going towards the beach. When he reaches the beach he finds himself running directly towards Katara and quickly uses airbending to avoid her (not wanting to risk hurting her), instead colliding with Sokka. While the dorsal fin of the creature disappears beneath the surface, Katara runs to where her brother and Aang have come to a halt. Sokka is leaning against a tree trunk, a trail marking where his body slid across the ground. Aang is dressing himself as Katara and Momo approach the two.

"What was that thing?" Katara asked the two.

"I don't know." Aang replied.

"Well, let's not stick around to find out." Sokka says as he gets up and dust of his hands "Time to hit the road."

Just then several female warriors clad in green kimonos descend from the treetops ambushing the trio. The woman quickly encircle the group. Sokka gets pulled back and knocked over. Katara is pulled by her arm and as she leans in to maintain her balance, someone pulls her parka over her head and pulls her down. Aang is momentarily distracted by Katara's struggles, but leans back out of instinct when he feels someone reach for his collar. He leans back far enough to put his hands on the ground and uses them to lift his feet of the ground and do an airbending kick at the person who tried to grab him. The person avoids the kick but not the air that comes with it and is catapulted backwards into a three.

"Who are you people?" Aang asks as he looks around, then dodges a fan from behind then spins around and hits the person in the stomach sending her backwards as well.

He looks around and sees to others ready to attack him from to different angles and quickly kicks up sand to obscure himself from view then jumps up when he fells the two approaching making them collide with each other.

"Seems we underestimated you" Says the last of the fighters who was currently guarding Katara, Sokka and Momo (who was in a bag). Unlike the rest of the girl that had simple headbands with a golden squire in the middle of there forehead the headdress that this one was wearing was a lot more intricate, which Aang took to mean that she was the leader.

"Has happened to me before" Aang says with a smile, then jumps up when the two warriors he left in the sand cloud jump out at him. He was however not prepared for the leader to jump forward and use the shoulder of one of the other two as a springboard to crash into him and knock him to the ground.

"I could say the same thing" the girl says as her fellow warriors join her and help her tie up and blindfold Aang.

* * *

><p>Soon Aang and his friends where lead to a village (though being blindfolded they weren't aware of this) and tied to a pole.<p>

"You three have some explaining to do." A male voice states sternly.

"And if you don't answer all our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the Unagi." A female voice added that Aang recognized as the leader of the group that attacked them.

"Show yourselves, cowards!" Sokka responses in challenge.

Following his exclamation the blindfolds are removed and Aang sees the five warriors he fought along with and old man. One of the warriors, from what he can tell the first one he defeated, is sending him a dirty look while the others seem to be more appraising. The leader is focused more on Sokka then him.

"Who are you?" Sokka asks from beside Aang "Where are the men who ambushed us?"

Aang felt like face-palming but being tied up was unable to do so.

"There were no men." The leader states indignantly with a clenched fist. "We ambushed you. Now tell us, who are you and what are you doing here?"

"Wait a second," Sokka states with a glance to his right to where Aang stands looking for confirmation. "there's no way that a oww" Sokka is stopped halfway through his sentence by a kick from Aang

"Yes they did defeat us." Aang states "They where quite effective actually. They had good stealth managing to sneak up on us, even if we where a bit distracted. And more importantly for me was they showed a great deal of honour by not threatening to hurt either of you to get me to stop fighting back, instead using teamwork to take me by surprise and capture me."

The warriors looked slightly impressed and grateful, though still wary of him. Sokka looked at him in disbelief "You mean to tell me that we got defeated by a bunch of girls" He stated.

"A bunch of girls, huh?" The leader states angrily and grabs his collar "The Unagi is gonna eat well tonight."

"No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it." Katara says pleadingly "My brother is just an idiot sometimes."

The leader released Sokka, but still stares at him in dismay.

"It's my fault." Aang suddenly states with a sad look on his face, causing the other three to looks surprised at him in surprise "I'm sorry we came here. I wanted to ride the elephant koi."

"How do we know you're not" The elder man began and pointed at them "Fire Nation spies? Kyoshi stayed out of the War so far. And we intend to keep it that way!"

"This island is named for Kyoshi?" Aang states, an exited expression on his face "I know Kyoshi!"

"Ha! How could you possibly know her?" The man stated while looking at something at the top of the pole they where tied to "Avatar Kyoshi was born here four hundred years ago. She's been dead for centuries."

Aang looked up and could just make out a statue of Kyoshi, though the angle made it hard to tell.

"I know her because I'm the Avatar." Aang states, shocking the people there.

"That's impossible!" The leader of the warriors says "The last Avatar was an Airbender who disappeared a hundred years ago."

Aang smiles sheepishly. "That's me!" He says, "Surely you noticed me using airbending when we fought, right?"

"Did he use airbending" The male asks the leader of the warriors.

"I can't tell for sure, he did jump quite high but I didn't see any wind involved" The warrior replied.

"I meant when I repelled the first attack." Aang cut in "surely you noticed that my feet didn't touch her, giving her quick reflexes in dodging me, yet still she was send flying."

"That might as well have been some advanced earthbending move" the warrior replied, still sceptical.

"Throw the imposter to the Unagi!" The elder stated, sure that the chances of this child being the Avatar was so small that the warriors assessment was probably correct. All the warriors immediately retract their metal fans from their belts and slid them open. Ready to counter any sudden attack, they threateningly start to move forward and surround the bound friends. Katara leans forward in the ropes, glancing to her right where Aang is bound to the pole.

"Aang... do some Airbending..." She says nervously. Sokka is looking at the female warriors, his mouth open in shock. Aang looks questioningly at Katara for a moment. Aang bends over before pushing himself off the ground. He leaves a large dust cloud as he shoots in the air, stretching out his ropes, using one of the outstretched fans of the statue to snap them. Now completely free of his bonds, him tumbles elegantly over the statue.

"Wauw! Did you see that?" and "Airbender!" was said among the spectators from the village as Aang lands gently on the ground in front of them, his robes still fluttering in the air. The man and the Kyoshi Warriors stare at him in shock. A lot more people gather around to see what is going on.

"It's true... you are the Avatar!" The man says in awe.

Aang looks behind him and sees that the other are still tied up "Um, could you free my friends now?" He asks the warriors, who quickly go to free them, while the crowd seems to be overwhelm by the sheer fact that the avatar is there, one man in the front start to emit a high pitched squeal while widely tossing his hands up in the air in admiration. He gets so overexcited that he starts to foam and faints; the rest of the villagers just keep on cheering.

Soon after that they are taken to the elders house (who introduces himself as Oyaji) and were given an evening meal as well as rooms where they could get some rest.

* * *

><p>The next morning Aang, Katara and Momo are sitting at a long table while a villager places another dish on the already richly filled table. Aang and Momo are very excited to see the display of delectables in front of it, but Katara supports an uneasy look.<p>

"Dessert for breakfast" Aang says a bit sceptical "oh well, I can work it of later when I train." Katara, meanwhile, pokes one of the squishy looking, orange puffs with a flat top in front of her. She then picks up and closely investigates the dessert. Aang on the other hand doesn't share her reluctance and starts eating at a fast pace. "They sure do threat the avatar nicely here" He says excitedly Katara still isn't convinced about the deliciousness of the dessert she's holding and glances at Aang. "Mmm..." Aang says then offers Katara a desert of the same kind he's eating "Katara you've got to try these!"

Katara puts down the orange dessert and accepts the dessert Aang offers her and takes a bite. "Well, maybe just a bite..." She says, while Momo sneaks up to Aang and snatches a dessert out of his other hand and quickly dashes away while Aang just smile at its antics.

Aang grabs another dessert in front of him while Katara munches down the piece of cake and reaches across the table for the same dessert Aang just took. Aang looks past Katara at Sokka who is sulking in the corner just as Momo appears between Aang and Katara and quickly snatches another cupcake from the table before vanishing underneath it.

"Sokka, what's your problem?" Aang says "EAT!"

"Not hungry." Sokka replies surprising Aang

"But you're always hungry!" Aang states.

"He's just upset because a bunch of girls kicked his butt yesterday." Katara states mockingly

"They snuck up on me!" Sokka protests

"Right." Katara relied still in a mocking tone "And then they kicked your butt."

Sokka angrily stands up "Sneak attacks don't count!" He states indignantly and then starts walking out of the room with big strides while mumbling to himself. "Tie me up with ropes! I'll show them a thing or two." He then stops and goes back to the table and starts collecting a bunch of deserts "I'm not scared of any girls. Who do they think they are anyway?" He then shoves one of the deserts into his mouth and stalks off again. "Mmm... this is tasty."

"What's he so angry about?" Aang said excitedly if slightly confused, not understanding Sokka's point of view since to him gender wasn't important when it came to fighting. "It's great here. They're giving us the royal treatment!" He continues.

"Hey, don't get too comfortable." Katara says "It's risky for us to stay in one place for very long."

Momo's arm comes into view from underneath the table. He scans the table for new pastries to snatch. Aang offers a pasty to Momo's grasping paw.

"I'm sure we'll be fine for a while, just so we can train a bit before moving on." He says as the lemur feels the desert and quickly snatches it out of Aang's hand. "Besides, did you see how happy I'm making this town?" Aang moves closer to Katara and then turns around to look out of the window at the statue. "They're even cleaning up that statue in my honor!"

"Well, it's nice to see you excited about being the Avatar." Katara says though she looks slightly concerned "I just hope it doesn't all go to your head."

"Come on, you know me better than that." Aang says reassuringly "I'm both a monk and a ninja, I can handle it." Aang gets up "Anyway, I'm going to go find those warriors, since they where quite good fighters, especially considering that they didn't even use any bending at all. I hope they are willing to spar with me" Then he left, not catching the look of jealousy on Katara's face, since she realized that one of these warriors could end up catching Aang eye, and unlike with her he wouldn't be held back because of them having different bending abilities.

* * *

><p>Aang approached the Dojo where he had been told the Kyoshi warriors often train. Walking up and seeing that they where indeed inside he knocked on the wall beside the opening to get their attention<p>

"May I come in" He asked them politely.

"Of course Avatar Aang" The leader says formaly.

"Just Aang is fine, no need to be formal" Aang said with a smile.

"Then you may call me Suki" Suki replied returning his smile. "So why did you come here. Did you just want to watch, or did you want to join in"

"While watching might be interesting, I already know that you fighting style won't fit me" Aang said "Like most you rely on a set fighting style, learned through kata's. I prefer a more impulsive approach, adapting my fighting style to the situation and opponents, which is harder to do if you have focused on training one style."

"Then why did you come here" Suki asked, since he still hadn't answered that.

"Oh, right." Aang said, remembering why he was there "I wanted to know whether you would be willing to spar with me. No bending at all, just pure fighting."

"But you're the Avatar, your greatest strength lies in your bending abilities" One of the other warriors said.

"True, but that is no excuse to be useless at fighting without bending" Aang said. "And I do have a trick or two up my sleeve that isn't elemental bending, so don't take me as defenceless" He added.

"Well, I at least have nothing against fighting against you" Another warrior said, "Still need to get you back for air-kicking me on the beach."

"You can try, though I think we should go some where else, since this place is rather cramped for fighting and I would hate to damage it" Aang stated.

"I know just the place" Suki said leading them outside.

* * *

><p>"Well this place looks perfect" Aang said looking around the clearing Suki had lead them to.<p>

It reminded him of the training ground back home, without the poles and remembrance stone. There where threes on three sides, while the fourth had a mountain wall. There where some rocks laying around in the clearing, but to him that was a good thing.

"Glad you approve" Suki said, then turned to the girls. "Who wants to go first?" She asked them.

"I was actually thinking of fighting you all at once" Aang stated.

"Rather confident aren't you" Suki asked, "You couldn't beat five of us when you where allowed to airbend, what makes you think you have a chance against six of us when you can't use airbending?"

"Good point, I guess" Aang said, "In that case I would like to fight the strongest of you, since I like a challenge"

"That would be me" Suki said with a smile, while some of the other warriors looked sad that they wouldn't get to fight him and get revenge for their loss at the beach.

The two got into fighting positions, but before they could start Suki said "What do you say to making this a little more interesting?".

"How so?" Aang asked interested.

"By making a small wager on the outcome." Suki said "If I win you teach us some of your skills, or learn some of ours if we find your skills to be lacking, while wearing our traditional warrior outfit"

"And if I win?" Aang asked, thinking that even if she won he could henge into a female Aang to avoid having to wear a dress while in a boys body.

"I'm open for suggestions" Suki said.

"Hmm" Aang said as he thought of what he could ask for, before a smile appeared on his face. "If I win then you go on a picnic with me after the fight without your makeup or warrior dress and tell me some more about the culture and people of this island, since I am interested in it."

"Sounds fair to me" Suki said "I look forward to seeing you in our warrior gear" She added with a smirk.

"Don't count me out just yet" Aang said with a smile. "Now let's start this fight shall we."

One of the other warriors stepped forward. "Ready" She asked getting a nod from both fighters "Begin" She said and jumped back.

Suki immediately jump forward and slashed downwards at Aang with her fan, but Aang sidestepped the attack and tried to kick her side. She made a one-handed handstand to avoid him and spun on her hand slightly before returning a foot to the ground and continued the circular momentum to slash at Aangs stomach.

Aang jumped backwards to avoid the fan but received a small cut in his robe. He landed and then jumped forward again taking advantage of her unstable footing after her spinning slash to kick her her behind her knees to knock her down, but immediately after her fall she roll away and then to her feet before he could take advantage of her position.

The two stood looking at each other before they smiled. Then they jumped forward again and traded blows.

* * *

><p>An hour later the two of them where still fighting though at a much slower pace. Aang had several cuts, both on his clothing and his skin, while Suki had a nasty bruise on her cheek and a slight limp indicating that her leg had been hit. On the other hand she wasn't breathing as heavily as Aang was.<p>

'Man, this body is a lot weaker then my old one' Aang thought sadly, 'I've become to reliant on airbending to support my movement, so my body hasn't been strengthened the same way.'

He and Suki once more charged forward, Suki ducked under a punch and tried to tackle him to the ground but Aang just followed the momentum of the fall and used it to throw her behind him rather then allowing her to pin him to the ground. They both got up and this time Aang jumped onto a rock nearby. Suki new what would happen if she tried to attack him while he was on the rock, the bruise on her face was a reminder of the last time she did it so instead she backed away slightly so that he couldn't do a surprise attack on her while she considered how to get him down without getting a fist to her face.

"Seems we are at a stalemate" Aang said from atop the stone, "We've fought for over an hour, yet none of us has managed to win. I have done slightly more damage to you then you have to me, however you are less tired then I am. Our positions right now doesn't allow either of us to attack without the other taking advantage of it, so we are truly stuck until one of us decides to take the risk."

"So what do you propose we do, I have no intention of giving up and I'm quite sure that you don't intend to give up either" Suki said.

"Let's call it a draw, both of us win, which of course means that I will train you and you will tell me about your culture." Aang said.

"I can agree to that, since we are evenly matched in a non-bender duel." Suki said "Though I realize you could easily defeat me if you had bending at your disposal." She added.

The other Kyoshi warriors, who had been watching from the threes on the edge of the clearing joined them. "That was an impressive fight" One of them said.

"Yeah" Another one agreed "I hope that Aang can teach us some of it".

Suddenly Katara came out of the woods from the opposite side of the Kyoshi warriors. "I agree that it was a really impressive fight" She stated as she walked up to them "Though I could do without all the damage to your clothing, it's going to take forever to fix those" She added. "Anyway one of the villagers is looking for you Aang, something about wanting to paint you or something like that.

"Okay, thanks for telling me" Aang said then turned to the Kyoshi warriors "Hey maybe you should be in the picture with me, it would be fitting since the picture is for this island and you are an important part of it." He then turned to Suki "We can go get that lunch we agreed on after the painter is finished" He told her.

Katara turns around and starts to leave in order to keep Aang from seeing her jealousy.

* * *

><p>Aang sat in the lotus potions, though he wasn't meditating. He was merrily posing for the painting, so he was looking at the painter and smiling. Behind him stood Suki while four other Kyoshi warriors where kneeling beside him, two on each side. It had taken a while to agree on the pose, the painter wanted all of the warriors kneeling while he stood behind them, but Aang felt it was better to have him sitting like he was now with the proud warriors of Kypshi standing behind him. In the end they compromised on the current setup.<p>

"There, I'm done with the rough sketch" The painter said, "I'll paint it up probably and show it to you for your approval tomorrow. Thank you for your time."

"No problem" Aang said happily as he used airbending to get back to his feet. He then turned to Suki "I'll meet you at the Dojo in half an hour so you can get ready"

"Could you make it an hour, I want to get through some Kata's before I get ready." Suki asked "As Kyoshi warriors we have to go through certain Kata's at least once daily unless we are fighting in a war or taken prisoners."

"That's fine, I'll find something to do in the meantime" Aang just said.

* * *

><p>"I can't believe I got beat up by a bunch of girls." Sokka grumbles to himself as he walks towards the dojo.<p>

Inside the dojo, the six Kyoshi Warriors are going through their Kata's. They are performing the routine in perfect unison. Sokka peeks his head around the door to look at them. He smiles smugly and enters.

"Sorry ladies," He says in an condescending tone, interrupting their exercise. Suki and the other warriors stop and close their fans. They stare at Sokka with a serious look on their faces. "didn't mean to interrupt your dance lesson." Sokka says while he stretches out. "I was just looking for somewhere to get a little workout."

"Well, you're in the right place." Suki says as Sokka continues his warm up. "Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know that you were friends with the Avatar." She adds.

"It's all right." Sokka says while stretching his arms, then mockingly suppressing a laugh while speaking. "I mean, normally I'd hold a grudge, but seeing as you guys are a bunch of girls, I'll make an exception."

"I should hope so. A big strong man like you?" Suki says sarcastically, though slightly wary that Sokka, like Aang, could be stronger then he seemed "We wouldn't stand a chance."

"True." Sokka says smugly "But don't feel bad. After all, I'm the best warrior in my village."

"Wow! Best warrior, huh?" She says still in a sarcastic tone and glances back at her fellow warriors "In your whole village?" She looks back at Sokka "Maybe you'd be kind enough to give us a little demonstration."

"Oh... well... I mean... I..." Sokka says as his eyes widen.

"Come on, girls!" Suki said to her fellow warriors "Wouldn't you like him to show us some moves? They must be just as impressive as those the airbender showed us" The other warriors giggled and smiled indicating that they wanted to see his moves.

"Well, if that's what you want, I'd be happy to." He says and places his hands on Suki's shoulder in order to push her back a little, but she doesn't move a bit. "All right, you stand over there. Now, this may be a little tough, but try to block me."

While he's talking, Sokka takes on a fighting stance while Suki hasn't moved a muscle from the position Sokka has put her in. Sokka bends his knees and then attacks the female warrior by trying to punch her. Suki doesn't leave her position, but easily defends herself by bringing up her left arm and thrusting her closed fan against Sokka's shoulder. He cries out in pain and staggers backwards.

"Aw!" He said while rubbing his and looking impressed (against his will) "Heh heh... good. Of course, I was going easy on you."

"Of course." She replied sarcastically, and while Sokka might miss that he could easily see her self-assured posture indicating that she didn't think him a worthy opponent.

He quickly becomes annoyed and angry because of it "Let's see if you can" He starts out his voice steadily raising while he attempts to hit Suki with a roundhouse kick. "handle this!"

Suki quickly dodges under Sokka's outstretched leg and pushes him off balance. When the Water Tribe warrior lands flat on his back with a loud thud, Suki lazily opens her fans to wave herself some air. Sokka, a little chocked by his second failure, loses his temper at the sight of Suki's defiant posture.

"That does it!" He screams as he gets up and madly charges her again.

Suki quickly closes her fan and moves out of Sokka's way. She grabs him by the arm with her right hand, while she pushes against his shoulder with her left hand, quickly spinning him around. After two turns, she switches position and spins Sokka in the other direction. Sokka is being tossed around with no means to stop it, a look of distress in his face. Suki suddenly stops spinning which causes Sokka to topples forward. Suki then loosens Sokka's belt and ties his left hand to his right foot behind his back in one swift movement. Sokka tries so maintain his balance for a while by jumping on one leg, but it isn't long before he loses footage and smacks down flat on his face.

"Anything else you want to teach us?" Suki states mockingly.

Sokka blushes in humiliation as the Kyoshi Warriors laugh at him.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Aang has gotten a following of fan-girls while he was looking for Katara. He has talk to them a bit but found them to focused on him being the Avatar (and airbender) rather then him as a person, so he had quickly lost interest. So when he found Katara he quickly made his way to her.<p>

"Hey Katara" He tells out to her as he walks toward her. She seemed to be gathering supplies for when they continued their travel, if the pot with groceries was anything to go by.

"Hallo Aang" Katara responded in a slightly cold voice "Shouldn't you be on a date with Suki about now" She adds.

"I wouldn't call it a date" Aang stated "but anyway, Suki wanted to do something first so I have some time to kill, so I thought I'd meet up with you"

"Oh, good! Can you help me carry this back to the room? It's a little heavy."

"Sure, lead the way" Aang said lifting up the pot easily. "Are these supplies?" he then asks.

"Yes they are" Katara said "they give us discounts for being with the Avatar so I thought this would be a good place to restock."

"That's great" Aang said happily "Especially since our resources are limited right now".

"That was what I was thinking too" Katara said with a smile. "So, if it isn't a date your having with Suki then what is it"

"Oh that, I wanted to know some more about the culture on this island since it's named after one of my past lives." Aang said "So I thought that getting the leader of the Kyoshi warriors to tell me about it would be the best way to learn about it, since she hopefully won't just drone on and on about boring stuff like older people tend to do".

"Guess that makes sense, though I still think it would be better to learn about it from Oyaji since he likely knows more about it" Katara countered.

"I prefer quality over quantity, and I'm likely to fall asleep if he goes into to many detail" Aang said, "Anyway I do want to get to know Suki anyway, so this way I get to do both at the same time."

Katara's eyes turned cold at those words, but she did her best to hide it. Aang had already told her his feelings along with his position on a relationship between them. Either she needed to come to terms with there being others, or she would need to move on, but it wasn't easy for her to do that.

"Well I hope you have a good time" Katara said with false cheerfulness. "What are your plans afterwards."

"Afterwards I will teach the Kyoshi warriors the basics of chakra, like I did with you and Sokka, though it will only be to the point of using it to augment their abilities and possibly three walk." Aang said "if you want to hear the lecture again or just be there to train on your own then your welcome to join us."

"I might do that, though I need to finish restocking first" Katara said as they arrived back in their room where Aang sat down the pot and Katara started packing the things away. "After that I think we should continue or journey, since staying here much longer might put these people in danger"

"You're probably right though I really like it here" Aang said. The two then fell into a comfortable silence as Katara continued packing things away.

* * *

><p>"umm.. Where's Suki" Sokka asks as he re-enters the Dojo.<p>

One of the warriors step forward "She's getting ready to go eat with the Avatar to tell him about some of our traditions" She said "Why do you ask?"

"Well, you see.." Sokka started just as Suki came into the room (without her warrior gear)

"Spit it out!" She said. Sokka looked momentarily confused, before he recognized who it was, "What do you want?" Suki continued.

Sokka went down to his knees bowing his head slightly "I would be honored if you would teach me."

"Even if I'm a girl?" Suki asked him.

"I'm sorry if I insulted you earlier." Sokka apologized "I was wrong."

"We normally don't teach outsiders, let alone boys." Suki told him.

"Please make an exception." Sokka said "I won't let you down."

"Right now I have someone else to meet, but I think that one of the others can train you." Suki said. "But you have to follow all of our traditions."

"Of course!" Sokka said happily.

"And I mean ALL of them." Suki said with a slightly sadistic grin.

* * *

><p>"Do I really have to wear this?" Sokka whined "It feels a little... girly."<p>

"It's a warrior's uniform." Suki said "You should be proud. The silk threads symbolizes the brave blood that flows through our veins. The gold insignia represents the honour of the warrior's heart."

"Bravery and honor." Sokka said proudly just as Aang entered.

"Hey Sokka! Nice dress!" He said with a smile "I'll probably be wearing one later when I teach the Kyoshi some of my basic tricks" He then turned to Suki "You ready?" He asked.

"Yeah let's go" Suki replied, leaving Sokka to be taught by one of the others.

* * *

><p>"So the reason that Kyoshi warriors must be non-bending female's is because she once taught a male earth-bending force that ended up being more damaging then helpful?" Aang asked for clarification. He and Suki where currently sitting on a hill just able to see the bay where Aang had ridden the koi fish.<p>

"That is what history tells us anyway" Suki said, "Though who this force was and what happened to them is unknown. It wasn't Kyoshi herself but her daughter who made the rule though, since the consequences didn't become clear until after Kyoshi's death."

"Must have been hard on Kyoshi to find out what had become of the force of earth-benders she trained" Aang said sadly.

"Probably" Suki agreed. "So this whole eating lunch together really was just to get to know our culture" She suddenly asked.

"Well, I also wanted to get to know you" Aang admitted sheepishly.

"Oh, and what have you learned" Suki asked with a shy smile.

"That you are a good person with a strong conviction. Also your main reason for training is to protect the people on this island, something I truly respect" Aang started "Apart from that you are also a beautiful girl."

"Thank you" Suki said with a smile "Many on this island see only Suki the warrior, so I am glad that you saw beyond that."

"Your welcome" Aang said, then he suddenly jumped up using airbending "fire-benders" he said pointing towards the bay where a familiar ship had just arrived. "You go warn the others and tell them to bring Appa. Since I'm pretty sure they're here for me, if I leave they should follow. Sorry I didn't get to train you, but that will need to wait till next time we meet"

"I'll hold you to that" Suki said, then quickly ran towards the village.

* * *

><p>Zuko was riding towards the village with his soldiers behind him, all mounted on Komodo Rhinos, when suddenly a blast of wind came from his right. He reacted quickly and jumped down on the left side of the rhino, using it as shelter, however he was unprepared for the airblast that came from the left knocking him head-first into the rhino.<p>

"Hallo again sucko" said a voice though he couldn't see where. "I would say it is nice seeing you again, but I've never been good at lying"

Then Zuko looked up to see Aang sitting on branch and leaning against a three.

"My name is Prince Zuko, Avatar." Zuko said in Anger "And you are coming with me back to the fire-nation."

"Sorry, but I haven't mastered water or earth yet so if I should follow the traditions then I am not ready to learn fire-bending yet." Aang said mockingly.

"Your coming as a prisoner." Zuko yelled as he got into a fighting position "Not to learn any kind of bending".

"That's to bad." Aang replied "But I really don't have..." Aang quickly swung himself of the branch as Zuko send a fireblast after him. "Hey, hasn't anyone taught you that it's impolite to attack people in the middle of a..." He jumped to the side to avoid another blast "...Sentence".

Zuko started firing blast of fire after Aang in an almost constant steam, while Aang just avoided the attacks, occasionally countering with an air blast. "I will get you eventually, Avatar" Zuko yelled.

Just then a growl was heard from above them followed by Aangs staff landing in front of him.

"Guess my ride is here" Aang stated while picking up the staff. "I'll see you later Sues" He then unfolds the staff and takes of flying up to Appa. Once he lands Appa quickly flies of.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Poll:

The general consensus of the poll seems to be that this should be a Harem story, though the number of votes as of right now is to small for me to take it as the final result.

The Harem:

Katara, Ty Lee and Suki will all be part of the harem (Should this become a harem story). Apart from them I have also decided on two others, though who will remain a surprise. I will say that it is neither Mai nor Azula. Mai personality is to gloom for Aang and Azula is to crazy.

Grammar/tense:

A reviewer mention that I have problems with past tense/present tense, and I have to recognize that it is probably true, and the only way I can really fix it is by getting a Beta reader, since grammar is a weak point of mine. This comes from being mildly dyslectic and focusing more on learning to read and write rather then learning the grammatical rules and holding a tense. I don't really know how beta-reading works so anyone willing to tell me just send me a PM. Same goes for anyone willing to be a beta reader of this story.


	5. The King of Omashu

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: And the next chapter is here. I hope you like it.

To Any authors reading this story, I now have a challenge on my profile (It's an idea I had for a story, but decided not to try and write because I don't want to be the type of author that starts 20 stories and doesn't finish any of them).

* * *

><p>"I think I can finally do chakra moulding" Katara said happily.<p>

"Just a moment" Aang said, then put his hands in the standard chakra moulding handsign "Byakugan" He said quietly while focusing chakra to his eyes. He had trained using the Byakugan, though he was still not very proficient at it. He however believed that he should be able to see if someone was moulding chakra. "Show me, Katara" He said, while concentrating on keeping his sight on her rather then everything else around him.

"Okay" Katara said, putting her hands in the same sign as him and started to concentrate.

Aang could immediately see the chakra moving through her system and getting moulded by her hands, showing him that she had indeed succeeded. Now it was time to see if she could learn to use Jutsu.

* * *

><p>"Even when your not trying to water-bend, I still get wet when you try to use special abilities" Sokka whined while trying to dry himself.<p>

"I don't understand why her clones are made of mist" Aang said "It isn't a water clone, since then it would be solid, and not just go through Sokka like it just did"

"Maybe it has something to do with my bending abilities" Katara proposed.

"I'm pretty sure it does, but I'm not sure what exactly" Aang replied. He sat quietly for a bit "Oh well" He then said "We'll probably figure it out later. For now good work with the clone. I think we're close to Omashu. I used to always go there to visit my friend Bumi."

"Before we get there you should probably disguise yourself" Katara said "It could be dangerous if people find out you're the Avatar."

"I don't want to use my henge, though" Aang said "If one of Zuko's fire-benders see you two travelling with someone looking completely different then they might draw the conclusion that I can somehow change my looks which will make them more cautious. I'd rather not show my abilities to soon"

"We'll figure something out before we get there then" Katara said.

* * *

><p>"Ugh. This is so itchy." Aang said as they walked up the last big hill before Omashu. He had used Appa's fur to give himself hair that was similar to Kakashi and a moustache. He turned to Appa "How do you live in this stuff?" All he got in response was a snort.<p>

"Great!" Sokka said beside him "Now you look just like my grandfather."

"Technically, Aang is 112 years old." Katara pointed out.

"Now let's get to skipping, young whipper-snappers." Aang said in an old mans voice. "The big city awaits just on the other side of this hill!"

A moment later they reached the hilltop and got their first view of Omashu.

"Wow." Katara said in awe "We don't have buildings like this in the South Pole!"

"They have buildings that don't melt!" Sokka added.

"You do realize that Kyoshi had that to, right Sokka?" Aang asked.

"Um.. Right, I was being sarcastic." Sokka defended.

"Whatever you say, Sokka" Aang said with a grin "anyway, let's go, slow pokes. The real fun's inside the city!" Aang jumps down some of the hill and starts walking to Omashu.

* * *

><p>Aang, Katara, and Sokka walk down the path to Omashu, which had steep falls on either side. They stop a few feet away from the city.<p>

"You guys are going to love Omashu." Aang said quickly looking back at them befere turning back to the gate. "The people here are the friendliest in the world."

Just then they heard a voice from in front of them; "Rotten cabbages?" The gate guard said to a cabbage merchant who is standing in front of the gate with a cabbage cart. "What kind of slum do you think this is?" He then earthbends the cabbage cart up, making it fly into the air and fall over the edge of the path.

"No!" The cabbage merchant screamed "My cabbages!"

Katara, Sokka, and Aang look over the side to see the falling cabbages.

"Just keep smiling!" Aang says as he, Katara and Sokka walk up to the gate.

The guard brings up a boulder and hovers it over Aanga head.

"State your business!" He yells at them.

Aang quickly runs from underneath the boulder and up to the guard.

"My business is my business, young man, and none of yours!" Aang says in his old man voice. Behind him the boulder falls to the ground while Katara shakes her head "I have a mind to bend you over my knee and paddle your backside!"

"Settle down, old timer!" The guard said "Just tell me who you are."

Thinking of his current hairdo Aang quickly decided his name "Name's Bonzu Hatake, the Third," He began, using Bonzu because it was a fairly common earth-nation name back in his time and Hatake to honour Kakashi "and these are my grandkids."

Katara walks up to the guard. "Hi. June Hatake." She said to the guard "Nice to meet you."

"You seem like a responsible young lady." The gate guard told her "See that your grandfather stays out of trouble. Enjoy Omashu!"

"We will! Katara says and she, Aang and Sokka begin walking towards the gate. As Sokka starts going by, the guard turns to him.

"Wait a minute!" The gate guard says causing Sokka to stop as the guard places a hand on his shoulder. Aang and Katara turn around. "You're a strong young boy! Show some respect for the elderly and carry your grandfather's bag!"

"Good idea!" Aang says in his old man voice and throws his bag so it goes over Sokka's shoulder and into his hands.

The guard opens up the gate walls and Aang, Katara, and Sokka walk through. Momo's head then pops out of Aang's wig just as they get to the other side and the gate starts closing. The guard looks questionably at the sight, but the gates before he can get a closer look.

Aang, Katara and Sokka looked up at the city. Katara and Sokka focused on the buildings, but Aang was looking at something else.

"This is Omashu's delivery system." He stated in his normal voice drawing the attention of the two others "Miles and miles of tubes and chutes. Earthbending brings the packages up, and gravity brings them down."

"Great, so they get their mail on time." Sokka stated, not really seeing why Aang found them so interesting.

"They do get their mail on time, but my friend Bumi found a better use for the chutes." Aang stated, thinking back to the time Bumi told him that it was actually 'The world's greatest superslide!'

* * *

><p>"One ride." Aang says as he, Katara and Sokka sit in a mail box on top of a particularly steep chute. "Then we're off to the North Pole. Airbender's honor."<p>

"It sounded like fun at first, but now I'm starting to have second" Katara began, just as Aang starts the box to go down the system "THOUGHTS!" She ends her sentence in a yell.

Aang, Katara and Sokka start going down the chute. They see a set of spears on a track adjacent to the one they're on. At the bottom of the slope they're on connects with the one the spears are on and, given that they are slightly in front of the spears they suddenly find the spears behind them. Sokka ducks and while Katara leans forward into Aang.

"I'm on it!" Aang yells before he throw his weight back and forth causing the box to jump out of the chute and onto a nearby roof. They quickly slide down the roof, landing between a bunch of soldiers and a captain telling them something about being prepared for anything.

After that they continue through a stone fence right in front of another mail box, causing pieces of the fence to knock it over. After that they manage to get back on the mailing system.

"Aang, do something!" Katara yells, wanting him to stop the box "Use your Airbending!"

"Yeah! Great idea!" Aang said "That'll make us go even faster!" He continues, completely misunderstanding what Katara meant.

Aang then Airbends behind him and increases their speed. They soon reach a steep chute where they see and earthbender working with a box. They scream, fearing that they will crash into it but moments before they arrive he sends of the box causing them to sigh in relief only to scream again when he raises up another box right in front of them. They crash into it, causing both them and their box to fly into the air.

Aang Airbends the box back underneath them, making them fall back into the box. They then ride down roofs and through a house where someone was working on a vase, crashing said vase.

"Sorry!" Aang yells out as they crash through the opposite wall. They then slide through another house, where they accidentally take a cat along for the ride. The cat and Momo have a fight on top of Aangs head until Momo manages to push the cat of. They crash through a small wall meant to prevent people from falling off the building and, after a fall, land on top of a cabbage card, which, from what Aang could see belonged to the same merchant that had trouble getting cabbages into Omashu.

This was confirmed when he yelled "My cabbages!" Since Aang was pretty sure that no to people could sound that much alike, unless they where twins. "You're gonna pay for this!"

Guards then surround Aang, Sokka, and Katara.

"Two cabbages please." Aang says sheepishly.

* * *

><p>Soon thereafter Aang and his friends are taken before the king. When they first enter he has a thoughtful look on his face, which then changes sligtly to one of recognition.<p>

'Great, he recognized the tattoos as airbending tattoos' Aang thought when he saw the expression.

The Guard that lead them in starts to speak; "Your majesty, these juveniles were arrested for vandalism, traveling under false pretenses, and malicious destruction of cabbages."

"Off with their heads!" The cabbage merchant screams, who is standing slightly to the left of them. "One for each head of cabbage!"

"Silence!" The guard says while waving a hand at the merchant "Only the king can pass down judgement." He looks at the king "What is your judgement, sire?"

The king looks thoughtful and looks at the three; Sokka looks somewhere else while making a sound somewhere between a hum and a whistle. Katara looks at the king with sparkly eyes. Aang tries to just look away but when he notices the king focusing on him he starts to whistle

"Throw them..." the king begins, then pauses while Sokka, Katara, and Aang gasp "...a feast!"

This makes the guard look confused while the merchant looks unhappy. Sokka is smiling, while Katara and Aang have questioning looks.

* * *

><p>Soon Aang, Katara and Sokka are all seated in the dining room. Momo is sitting on the table eating a lot of food.<p>

"The people in my city have gotten fat from too many feasts, so I hope you like your chicken with no skin." The king says standing behind them, picking a chicken leg up from Aangs plate.

"Thanks, but I don't eat meat." Aang states quickly. He actually could eat meat, but he kept that to himself unless with friends, since there was a chance that people would know that airbenders where vegetarians.

"How about you?" The king says, turning to Sokka "I bet you like meat." he stuffs the chicken into Sokka's mouth. Sokka immediately starts eating it while the king begin walking around the table to his seat.

"Is it just me, or is this guy's crown a little crooked?" Katara whispers to Aang. Aang just nods in reply.

"So tell me, young bald one, where are you from?" The king asks as he sits down.

"I'm from ... Kangaroo Island!" Aang answers, using the only name he could come up with that wasn't related to airbenders.

"Kangaroo Island, eh?" The king asks "I hear that place is really hopping!" He then states while leaning forward slightly.

A moment of silence occurs. Then Sokka laughs out of nowhere. Katara and Aang look at him.

"What?" Sokka asks in reply to their look "It's pretty funny."

"All these good jokes are making me tired." The king suddenly states while stretching his arms over his head "Guess it's time to hit the hay." he gets up, but then suddenly pulls a chicken leg from his sleeve and throws it at Aang.

Aang (after stopping his first impulse to substitute himself, which would cause far to many questions to be asked) catches it with an Airball which causes the guards to gasp.

"There's an Airbender in our presence, and not just any Airbender. The Avatar!" The king states, standing up. Aang stops his airbending and the king sits back down before asking "Now, what do you have to say for yourself, Mr. Hatake?" while leaning an arm on the table in front of him.

"Okay, you caught me." Aang said quickly and stood up "I'm the Avatar. Doing my Avatar thing, keeping the world safe. Everything checks out." Aang looks underneath table. "No Firebenders here. So, good work everybody!" He grabs hold of Sokka and Katara and starts backing out of the room as he continues "Love each other, respect all life and don't run with your spears. We'll see you next time!"

They reach the door only to have the guards prevent them from leaving.

"You can't keep us here!" Katara says to the king after having looked behind her at the guards "Let us leave!"

"Lettuce leaf?" the king asks and takes bite out of a lettuce leaf on his plate.

"We're in serious trouble." Sokka states to Aang and Katara "This guy is nuts."

"Tomorrow, the Avatar will face three deadly challenges." The king states, "But for now, the guards will show you to your chamber."

"My liege, do you mean the good chamber or the bad chamber?" An old guard standing beside the king asks.

"The newly refurbished chamber." The king states

"Wait, which one are we talking about?" The guard asks

"The one that used to be the bad chamber, until the recent refurbishing, that is." The king responds "We've been calling it the new chamber, but we really should number them." The turns his head back to the guards that are leading Aang and his friends out of the room and says "Take them to the refurbished chamber that was once bad!"

* * *

><p>Soon they arrive in a hallway where on of the guards use earthbending to open a wall. Another guard then pushes them inside, after which the wall is closed.<p>

"This is a prison cell?" Katara said after looking around the room "It looks so nice!"

"He did say it was newly refurbished." Aang pointed out.

"Nice or not, we're prisoners!" Sokka stated.

"I wonder what these challenges are going to be." Aang mused.

"We're not sticking around to find out." Katara stated "There's got to be some way out of here."

"First I need to check something" Aang said while sitting down in a lotus position.

"Is this really the time to meditate" Sokka asked Katara who shrugged.

They then just watched Aang as he sat there, trying to figure out what he was doing. Then they noticed his facial features started to change, his cheeks moved and caused the bottom of his eyes to become rounder so his eyes became a perfect circle. On the side of his head he gained two small protrusions that looked like horns and his tattoo became grey instead of blue.

"What's happening to him" Sokka asked.

"I just entered sage mode" Aang stated as he opened his eyes. The eyes where now brown with bigger pupils. "I know my appearance is more toadlike but that's just a sideeffect of it"

"You don't look toadlike at all Aang" Katara stated "if anything you look like you've taken on characteristics of an flying bison"

"Really, so that's why it feels differently then." Aang stated "What you turn into when entering sage mode must change with what contract you sign, and because I haven't signed the toad contract in this body I won't turn toadlike. Instead I gained flying bison features due to my bond with Appa.

"What are you talking about? Sokka asked confused.

"Where I come from you can sign contracts with different summon animals to be allowed to summon them in battle" Aang explained "I signed the toad contract and when they felt that I was ready they thought me to gather nature chakra to enter sage mode, which improves my capabilities quite a bit. I always assumed that it was only possible to turn toadlike because I never heard of anyone else doing it, but it might be because only toads had access to something that made the absorption easier, which allowed them to teach their summoners."

"So you used to be able to turn into a toad-man and now you can turn into a bison-man?" Sokka asked "Yeah, that makes perfect sense" He continued sarcastically.

"Why did you need to do that transformation anyway" Katara asked.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot" Aang said and closed his eyes in concentration. "Where underground under the castle so that rules out sending Momo through the vents to get Appa to free us. There are quite a lot of people in the halls around us so if we try and flee we'll definitely end up in a lot of fights. If I'm feeling this right a lot of them are also earthbenders which makes the fight even harder."

"How do you know that" Sokka asked, quite freaked out by how Aang suddenly had all that information.

"When I'm in sage mode I gain sensor abilities" Aang stated as his face returned to normal "I can sense all the people around us, along with some basic feel for the surroundings in general."

"That's a really useful ability, why haven't you used it before" Sokka asked.

"Because I wasn't sure whether I could do it, and in most of the situations we've been in I've never had the time to gather nature chakra" Aang stated "And there is the whole risk of turning to stone if I gather too much"

"You still could have done it sooner" Sokka stated.

"Well, no point arguing about it now." Katara stated "Get some rest, Aang. Looks like you'll need it for tomorrow."

* * *

><p>In the middle of the night Aang woke when he felt something trying to force him into a deeper sleep, something that Jiraiya had thought him to react to, since it usually meant that someone was using sleeping gas on him.<p>

He took a deep and held it looking around the room for a source and the only one he could see was the air-vent so he used airbending to stop air from coming through it and then waited a while. Soon he heard the sound of earthbending and saw the wall opening and one of the guards used a torch to look inside, then quickly closed the wall again. Shortly thereafter he heard the sound of earthbending again, but couldn't see the source so he sat up and looked around just as the sound returned and he saw the beds that Sokka and Katara had slept in raise up from holes in the floor.

"Shit, they took Katara and Sokka." He said to himself. He figured that the guard that opened the wall had just checked which bed the two slept in and then they just removed them by using earthbending from the room beneath them. He then stopped blocking the air-vent and found that they had stopped pumping in sleeping gas so he began to breath normally.

He then sat down and started to gather nature chakra. Soon he was done and after a quick check walked up to a wall where he felt that there was a guard. He had wanted to avoid fighting these people, but now he had no choice since they took his friends. He started to form a rasengan, but when he saw it take on wind characteristics he quickly stopped, since his goal was to knock the guard out not kill him. Instead he hit the wall with a nature enhanced punch which, while less destructive then a rasengan was still enough to cause the wall to fall onto the guard. Aang grabbed his staff and quickly jumped out, making sure not to step on the fallen wall and started racing towards where he felt his friends were.

Soon he reached some stairs with two guards. He unfolded a little of his staff and used it to create a powerful wind that knocked both into the wall while he continued up the stairs.

Just as he was about to leave the staircase he felt a large amount of signatures moving he way and quickly henged to look like one of the guards, just as a group of guards turned the corner and ran towards him.

"Has the Airbender come by here yet" the leading guard asked.

"No sir" Aang responded immediately.

"Keep and eye on the staircase, don't let anyone up until I return" The guard said then lead his men down the staircase.

The moment they where gone Aang returned to normal and started running, since he knew they would return the moment they saw the downed guards at the bottom of the stair. While henged he'd lost his sage mode so he was now had to rely on his memory and instinct, and hope that they hadn't moved Sokka and Katara from where he'd felt them before.

He soon found another pair of stairs but before he could run up it he was suddenly encased in earth.

"Got you Avatar" A guard said, coming out of an alcove. Aang closed his eyes and started gathering nature chakra again, knowing that it should allow him to break free. "What are you doing now" The guard asked "Was the effect of the sleeping gas just delayed and now you've fallen asleep he continues in mirth. Then he sees Aangs facial features change "What the.."

The earth around Aang cracked and then exploded outwards knocking the guard backwards just as the group of guards from earlier came around the corner, causing him to knock the one's in front over. Aang quickly ran up the stairs, while he sensed that Katara and Sokka had been moved again, this time to the throne room if he sensed currectly. He also sensed the guards began to stop pursuing him and that there was an open route leading directly to the throne room. Apart from Katara and Sokka there where quite a few others in the throne room so he figured they where getting ready to confront him there.

Deciding that, even if it is a trap, he can't really avoid it if he wants to save his friends he quickly makes his way to the throne room.

Once he arrives he is faced with the king wearing a weird purple robe.

"Seems I underestimated your capabilities, Avatar" The king said "I did not think you would be able to fight of the effects of the sleeping gas, or leave the room even if you did notice your friends disappearance"

"You should know better then to underestimate an Avatar" Aang stated, even though he'd actually used his ninja abilities more then his Avatar one's.

"That is true" The king said "anyway, since you're here we can start the challenges early, but first, Avatar, what do you think of my new outfit? I want your honest opinion." Aang hesitates with an answer causing the king to prompt "I'm waiting."

"If you're into purple then I guess it's fine" Aang said.

"Excellent! You passed the first test."

"Really?" Aang asked hopefully, hoping to get those tests out of the way.

"Well, not one of the deadly tests." The king said "The deadly challenges are much more, uh, challenging."

Aang unfolded part of his staff and swung it to create a powerful wind in the room, knocking most of the people back, though the king didn't move at all.

"I don't have time for your crazy games!" Aang yelled "I know my friends are here somewhere so give them back to me! We're leaving!"

"Oh, I thought you might refuse." The king said "So I'll give your friends some special souvenirs!"

A wall in the side of the room opens and Katara, Sokka, and two guards appear. 'Why didn't I notice that there was a hall there' Aang asked himself as the guards put some crystal like rings on Sokka and Katara.

"Those delightful rings are made of pure jennomite, also known as creeping crystal." The king explains "It's a crystal that grows remarkably fast. By nightfall your friends will be completely covered in it. Terrible thing, really. I can stop it, but only if you cooperate."

The crystal starts crawling up Sokka's arm. "Ah! It's already creeping!" He yells.

"I'll do what you want." Aang says 'And kick your ass if given a chance' he adds in his head.

* * *

><p>Aang is lead to a room with a waterfall going down the midle of the room. Sokka, Katara, and Bumi are on a ledge in the wall. Aang is surrounded by stalagmites.<p>

"It seems I've lost my lunchbox key and I'm hungry. Ooh, there it is!" The king says as he points at the waterfall where the key can be seen hanging from a chain in the middle of it. "Would you mind fetching it for me?"

Aang goes into the water and tries climbing up the ladder, using Chakra to get a better grip. When the king sees that Aang is actually succeeding in climbing the latter he quickly earthbends to make the waterfall more focused which makes it impossible for Aang to climb higher, and he lets go.

"Ooh, climbing the ladder." The king says, while earthbending to return the waterfall to it's previous state, while hiding his surprise "No one's ever done that before."

'Going in from the top isn't going to help me either, but if I aim it just right I might be able to use a stalagmite' Aang thought to himself before he breaks of the tip of a stalagmit and throws it at the key followed by some airbending to increase its speed. The stalagmite flies through the waterfall hitting one of the links in the chain and continues into the wall above the kings head

"There! Enjoy your lunch!" Aang shouts "I want my friends back NOW!"

"Ah, not yet. " The king says dismissively "I need help with another matter. It seems I've lost my pet, Flopsie."

* * *

><p>"So what's the defining characteristics of Flopsie" Aang asked as he was about to enter a earth ditch.<p>

"Well he was named flopsie because of his floppy ears." The king stated "That should be enough to find him"

Aang jumps into the ditch and soon he finds a bunny with large floppy ears.

"Okay!" Aang says "Found him!"

"Bring him to me." The king says in response "Daddy wants a kiss from Flopsie!"

"Come here Flopsie" Aang says as he approaches the bunny, only to turn around when he feels a presence behind him.

He turns around to come face to face with a massive Gorilla-goat. He quickly jumps back as the creature reaches it's hands out to catch him. After he lands he sees the bunny run past him but before he can give chase he realizes that the Gorilla-goat also has flopsie ears, so he looks at it closely

"Flopsie?" He asks, uncertainly.

Flopsie immediately starts wiggling its tail, with a big smile on its face and its tongue sticking out of its mouth. It picks up Aang like a baby and licks his face after which Aang rubs its head in return. Then the king whistles which caused Flopsie to put him down and jump up to the king.

"Oh, that's a good boy." The king says while rubbing it's belly "Yeah, who has a soft belly?"

Aang jumps up to where Katara and Sokka, halfway encased in crystals, are.

"Guys, are you okay?" Aang asks in concern.

"Other than the crystals encasing my entire body, doing great!" Katara respons just as a crystal grows on one side of Sokka's body, making him become unbalanced and fall. Aang walks over to Bumi.

"Come on!" Aang says "I'm ready for the next challenge"

This sentence cause the king to smile.

* * *

><p>Aang gets lead onto a balcony that overviews a room that looks like some kind of rectangular arena.<p>

"Your final test is a duel." The king says from behind him, standing at the entrance Aang just entered through "And as a special treat, you may choose your opponent."

A man comes out on either side of the king. One is slim and agile looking and carriers a halberd with a crescent shaped axehead. The other is muscular and also carries a halberd, though this one is more rectangular in its head.

"So you're saying whoever I point to, that's the person I fight?" Aang asks. He knew there was some trick to this, all other challenges had involved what Kakashi would call 'Looking underneath the underneath' or as Bumi said ' open your brain to the possibilities'. Then it hit him, the king had the same eyes as Bumi.

"Choose wisely!" The kings voice cut into Aangs musings

'Even though I know he's probably strong, I still want to find out how good he really is' Aang thought before saying "I choose...you." and pointing to Bumi.

"Wrong choice!" Bumi removes his outer robe and straightens himself, proving himself to be a powerful, fit old man. He Earthbends at Aang, making him fly into the arena. Then Bumi jumps down right in front of Aang, starting to laugh. "You thought I was a frail old man, but I'm the most powerful Earthbender you'll ever see."

"Actually I was quite sure that you weren't just some frail old man." Aang stated "I just wanted to see how strong you've become while I was frozen, Bumi."

"So, you figured it out, ehh" Bumi said.

"Of course." Aang replied "I was only a question of opening my brain to the possibility that you where still alive" He continued with a smile.

"Very good." Bumi said. "before we fight you might want this." He signals a guard that then throws Aang his airbending staff."

"Thanks, but before we fight could you perhaps free my friends, I want them to see the fight probably" Aang asked.

"Well, since you've already figured out who I am I see no reason not to." Bumi replied before earthbending himself up to the balcony and quickly breaks the crystals, though he catches a piece of it "Jennomite is made of rock candy." he states and takes a bite of the crystal. "Delicious!"

"So this crazy king is your old friend Bumi?"

"Who are you calling old?" Bumi asked in mock anger before smiling "Okay, I'm old." He then jumped back into the arena "Anyway, let's get on with the fight."

He then creates and sends three rocks in quick succession all of which Aang evades.

"Typical Airbender tactic: Avoid and evade." Bumi states "I hoped you would be less predictable."

He then send another rock at Aang, causing Aang to jump into the air and then use his staff to stay airborne.

"Don't you have any surprises for me?" Bumi taunts "Sooner or later you'll have to strike back!"

He then sends a rock at the roof causing part of the ceiling to fall down on Aang. Deciding to change to a more unpredictable counter, Aang substitutes himself with a rock behind Bumi and them pushes himself forward. Just as he reaches Bumi a pillar of earth raises up, catapulting Aang into the air.

"Much better. Making me think I got you and then attack from behind" Bumi said. "Seems you've finally gained access to the abilities within you".

"I'd ask how you knew that there where abilities like that within, but I don't think you would give a straight answer" Aang said, as he lands on the opposite side of the arena.

"I've always seen that there was more to you then meet the eye, some things even you weren't aware of at the time" Bumi said "Though now you seem to know"

Aang sent a powerful blast of wind at Bumi but he just raises a plate of earth to block it

"Did someone leave the windows open?" Bumi asked mockingly "It feels a little drafty in here. Are you hoping I'll catch a cold?"

Aang charges forward and then throws his staff, sending a blast of air to increase its speed but Bumi just side steps it before sending a wave if earth at Aang. He, however, isn't prepared for Aang to turn into smoke upon being hit, and then feeling a staff at his back.

"Misdirection has become a speciality of mine since last we meet." Aang stated. After throwing the wind at Bumi he had used the dust-cover to create a shadow clone and henge himself into looking like his staff. His clone then threw him at Bumi and once he got behind him he just transformed back to himself.

Bumi let himself fall forward disappearing into the earth and appearing behind Aang a moment later with a rock.

"Well done, Aang." Bumi said, throwing the rock to the side "You fight with much fire in your heart. You passed all my tests." He then stepped forward and embraced Aang "I didn't get to say this before, but it's good to see you. You haven't changed a bit. At least physically."

"Excuse me Bumi" Sokka said "But why did you do all of this instead of just telling Aang who you were?"

"First of all, it's pretty fun messing with people." Bumi said with a laugh "But I do have a reason." He turns back to Aang "Aang, you have a difficult task ahead. The world's changed in the hundred years that you've been gone. It's the duty of the Avatar to restore balance to the world by defeating Fire Lord Ozai. You have much to learn. You must master the four elements and confront the Fire Lord. And when you do, I hope you think like a mad genius." He looks at Sokka and Katara "And it looks like you're in good hands. You'll need your friends to help defeat the Fire Nation." Just then Momo arrives in the arena and land on Aangs shoulder "And you'll need Momo, too."

"Thank you for your wisdom," Aang says with a bow "but before we leave, I have a challenge for you."

* * *

><p>Shortly thereafter Bumi and Aang are racing down the package system, and as luck would have it, when they fell of the slide they landed on the cabbage merchant's wagon<p>

"My cabbages" He screamed, loud enough for all of Omashu to hear.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Sage mode/Summon contracts

Yes I changed his sage appearance, since for me it wouldn't make sense for nature chakra to only work for toads, therefore I choose to work under the assumption that Naruto turns toadlike because of his contract with the toads. If someone can tell me a place in the manga where someone who hasn't signed the toad contract uses nature chakra and turns toadlike I will of course change his appearance back to being toadlike, since his look isn't really a major plot point, just a detail.

To expand my theory slightly; if we go with the assumption a lot of people have about it being possible to have multiple contract, then one of them would likely need to be the main summoning contract, while the rest are just supporting summons, otherwise the person entering sage mode would gain traits from all his or her summons.

I know that the idea of multiple contracts is at least semi cannon, as Susuke has both snake and hawk summon, however he might have gotten his name removed from the snake contract after he killed Manda, so he may never have had two contracts at the same time.

Poll:

Harem has won the poll.

I've already decided on five girls but I want to add one more, so sometime in the near future I'll make another poll with the girls you can choice from.

Katara, Suki and Ty Lee are all going to be in the harem, but I'll keep the other two secret for now. As a consequence of trying to keep those two girls secret the will be added to the poll mentioned above, but will be in the Harem whether they win the poll or not.

Lemons:

A reviewer asked if there would be any lemons in the story, but at this point I don't really know. If I feel they fit in without taking away from the story then I might add them. Though if I do there will be a warning when it starts and when it ends, and there is not likely to be any vital information in those parts, that is not told in the non-lemon parts of the story.

Crossover:

A reviewer commented that there wasn't much crossover about this story, that it is mostly just an OOC Aang with extra abilities. While it could be argued that it is true, I personally don't like something being OOC without there being a valid reason, and the abilities are all from Naruto. I've seen fanfics that have called themselves crossovers for less.

Reviewers:

Just general information to reviewers; If I see your review as constructive I normally send you a PM response so you don't have to wait for the next chapter to hear my comments. I still put the answer in the chapter so that others don't write the same thing. If multiple people start asking/commenting the same thing I will likely only respond to one, and the rest will just have to wait for the next chapter.


	6. Imprisoned

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: The update took a little longer this time then before because I've been a little sick, so I've had trouble finding the energy to write. Also I have something that I need to focus on the next couple of months so my writing time will be minimized, so the next chapter might not be up for some time.

* * *

><p>"I've figured out exactly why you being a waterbender effects your clone technique"Aang said after they had landed to rest for the first time since leaving Omashu. "Basically you instinctively had the water element to your chakra when you mould it. I found it out when I tried to make a rasengan only to create a low-level rasenshuriken, also known as a wind rasengan."<p>

"Was that explanation suppose to make sense" Sokka asked.

"I'll show you a rasengan" Aang said "Just give me a moment."

Aang closed his eyes while holding his hand out in front of him. He concentrated on creating a normal rasengan, though it was almost as hard to do as it was when he first started learning it, because he needed to concentrate on not adding wind element to it. After two minutes he finally succeeded creating it.

"This is a rasengan" He said while folding it up for the two others to see.

"It just looks like a handheld version of you scooter." Sokka said. Then Aang smashed it into a nearby tree, splintering the wood "But it seems a bit more dangerous" Sokka added.

"It is." Aang said "depending on where it hits and how powerful a person is it can be deadly. The rasenshuriken is even more dangerous, in that it basically will create billions of tiny holes in a persons body, even damaging the chakra system. It is also more likely to do recoil damage, which is why I only use it when in sage mode because I then I can actually throw it."

"So while the rasengan you just made would be what you usually do, now you create these rasenshuriken instead because you instinctively add air to it." Katara stated "What happens if you add other elements?"

"Never tried learning other elements, though I might test it out at some point" Aang said. "Anyway, to get back to what I was saying; Because you instinctively add water to your techniques it creates special effects like making you clone into a mist-clone."

"Ok, so nothing can be done to change this?" Katara asked.

"Well, with training you might be able to do what I just did, completely remove the element when using a technique" Aang said, "but I think that in most cases it would be more trouble then it's worth"

"Ok, so now that we know what will you teach me next?" Katara asked.

"First I want to know how Sokka is progressing." Aang stated as he turned to Sokka "Show me what you've got" He then activated his byakugan (he still needed to concentrate a lot to do it, so he couldn't effectively use it in a fight).

"Um, okaay" Sokka said. He then put his hands in the standard chakra moulding position and started to try to mould his chakra.

"Hmm, it's almost there" Aang said. "For someone with no training in this beforehand you are quite good. Usually it take almost four months to get this down, so you're making great progress".

"Thanks, I guess." Sokka said.

"Anyway, back to the next thing I want to teach you." Aang said, turning back to Katara. "I think that the next thing I should teach you is a substitute, since it's a great way to get out of the line of fire"

"Sounds useful" Katara agreed.

* * *

><p>Later, after both training and sleeping, Aang and Katara are packing up their camp while Sokka is looking for food. After Aang and Katara are done they sit down and relax while waiting for Sokka to return.<p>

"How long does it usually take to master the substitute technique." Katara asked.

"Well, for most it's actually the hardest technique to master so the academy actually has a year where all technique training is dedicated to it, though most get it within 4 to 6 months." Aang said. "But based on your progress already you probably won't take that long"

At that point Sokka back, walking along the nearby stream with his food collecting sack.

"Great, you're back! What's for dinner?" Aang asked happily.

"We've got a few options." Sokka stated "First, round nuts and some kind of oval shaped nuts, and some rock shaped nuts that might just be rocks. Dig in!"

Sokka threw one of the nuts that might be a rock over his shoulder. It lands near Momo. Aang and Katara look at each other then back at Sokka.

"Seriously, what else ya got?" Katara said.

Sokka peers with one eye into the bag, hoping to find something else. Meanwhile Momo is eyeing the 'rock nut' with suspicion. He chitters and picks it up. He taps it on a nearby stone to no effect. The he cocks back and raps it hard on the stone. At that moment, a huge, startling noise disrupts the forest's calm. The group and Appa look up at the noise.

"What was that!" Sokka asked while Momo looks first at Sokka and then at the 'rock nut'. Momo drops the nut onto the stone again and another huge sound echoes through the forest, startling Momo again and causing him to jump away from the.

Aang points to the right "It's coming from over there!" He states.

Aang and Katara rush off in the direction of the noise, leaving Sokka waving his arms at them.

"Shouldn't we run away from huge booms, not toward them?" He yells after them before following them.

They soon arrive to a fallen three. They take cover behind it and look down at a river bed, that has been reduced to a small stream. They see a young earthbender is practicing his art in the river bed, and the three watch him move around a huge boulder.

"An earthbender!" Katara stated in fascination.

"Let's go meet him!" Aang said happily.

"He looks dangerous, so we better approach cautiously." Sokka said.

Katara ignored her brother's warning and started running out into the river bed to address the young earthbender.

"Hello there, I'm Katara!" Katara said to him "What's your name?"

The young earthbender looks over at Katara in surprise, drops his rock and runs back down the river bed. As he runs, he earthbends a load of rock into the riverbed, blocking pursuit.

"Nice to meet you!" Aang yelled after him.

"We just wanted to say hi." Katara stated sadly.

"Hey, that guy's gotta be running somewhere, maybe we're near a village and I bet that village has a market!" Aang said after a moment.

"Which means no nuts for dinner!" Katara said excitedly before she and Aang run in the same direction of the boy.

"Hey! I worked hard to get those nuts!" Sokka yells after them. Momo flies past him to join the others, making Sokka look downcast "Yeh, I hate'em too."

* * *

><p>Aang, Katara and Sokka reached a city and entered the market-place. Aang went to a stall to try out a hat.<p>

"Great hat." Aang said to the merchant "I'll trade you some nuts for it."

Aang turns around to look at Soka and Katara while laughing. He sees Katara look at the earthbender they saw earlier walk into a house. Aang quickly hands the hat back to the merchant.

"Hey!" Katara says as she runs towards the door with Aang and Sokka.

Katara opens door and enters to see the boy stand in front of the counter while a woman is standing on the other side.

"Hey, you're that kid!" Katara said "Why did you run away before?"

"Uh, you must have me confused with some other kid." The kid states.

Just then Aang and Sokka enter.

"No she doesn't, we saw you earthbending." Aang stated causing both the boy and the woman to gasp.

The Woman quickly goes to close the door and window.

"They saw you doing what?" She asked the boy while her hands are still on the window she just closed.

"They're crazy, mom, I mean, look at how they're dressed!" The boy said while pointing at their clothing and causing them to look down at it.

"You know how dangerous that is!" She continues, ignoring the boys feeble attempt to divert the focus of the conversation "You know what would happen if they caught you earthbending!"

Just then there was a heavy knock on the door is heard and Sokka quickly parts the window blinds to identify the intruders.

"Open up!" Came a voice from the outside.

"Fire Nation!" Sokka stated "Act natural!"

Aang quickly jumps behind the counter, henging into a pot just encase the soldiers check. Before he ducks down he had taken a quick look at the others and felt like face-palming at their abnormal positions.

The boys mother opens the door and a Fire Nation soldier enters. He looks around the room seeing the people in some very unconvincing normal poses, but decided to not give it to much thought.

"What do you want?" The mother asked "I've already paid you this week."

"The tax just doubled." The soldier stated "Wouldn't want an accident, would we?"

The soldier produces a fireball in his hands and smiles causing everyone (the hidden Aang excluded) to takes a step back from the soldier.

"Fire is sometimes so hard to control." The soldier continued.

The mother's expression melts from defiance to fear and resignation. She goes around the counter to get a chest, and is slightly surprised that she can't see Aang, but decides to save it for walks back around the counter and places the chest on it. She opens it to reveal a few miserable coins. She takes most of them out and gives them to the soldier. The soldier dumps the small ones on the ground.

"You can keep the copper ones." He said as he left the house.

The mother picks up the copper coins.

"Nice guy." Sokka said sarcastically "How long has the Fire Nation been here?"

"Five years." The mother stated "Fire Lord Ozai uses our town's coal mines to fuel his ships."

"They're thugs;" The boy stated "they steal from us, and everyone here is too much of a coward to do anything about it."

"Quiet, Haru." The mother said "Don't talk like that."

At that point Aang got up from behind the counter which shocked the mother, but before she could ask questions she was interrupted.

"But, Haru's an earthbender, he can help." Katara said.

"Earthbending is forbidden." The mother stated "It's caused nothing but misery for this village. He must never use his abilities."

"How can you say that?" Katara asked in shock "Haru has a gift. Asking him not to earthbend is like asking me not to waterbend. It's a part of who we are."

"You don't understand." The mother stated sadly.

"I understand that Haru can help you fight back." Katara stated "What can the Fire Nation do to you that they haven't done already?"

"They could take Haru away!" The mother stated "Like they took his father." she adds. Both Katara and Haru get a sad expression upon hearing that. "Anyway" The mother continues while turning to Aang "Where did you come from, when I got the chest you weren't back there".

"I was, you just didn't notice me" Aang states.

"How could I not notice you, there are barely any room to hide there." The mother says.

"That is a secret" Aang said with a kind smile. "I don't want to risk knowledge of my abilities to spread."

"And why is that?" The mother asked.

"Because I'm the Avatar" Aang stated shocking both Haru and his mother.

* * *

><p>In the evening Haru lead Aang and his friends into a barn near his mothers farm.<p>

"My mom said you can sleep here tonight, but you should leave in the morning." Haru told them after they entered.

"Thanks." Aang said "I'll make sure Appa doesn't eat all your hay."

Meanwhile Appa is stuffing his mouth with hay. He looks over at Aang and stops chewing for a few seconds before continuing.

After Aang, Katara and Sokka got their sleeping spaces ready, Haru and Katara leave the group to go for a walk.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier." Katara said "I didn't know about your father."

"That's ok." Haru said sadly "It's funny, the way you were talking back in the store, it reminded me of him."

"Thanks." Katara said shyly.

"My father was very courageous." Haru told Katara "When the Fire Nation invaded, he and the other earthbenders were outnumbered ten to one, but they fought back anyway."

"He sounds like a great man." Katara said with a small smile.

"After the attack, they rounded up my father every other earthbender and took them away." Haru continues his story "We haven't seen them since."

At this point Katara and Haru had walked up onto the crest of a small hill that overlooks the surrounding countryside.

"So, that's why you hide your earthbending?" Katara concluded.

"Yeh. The problem is that the only way I can feel close to my father now is when I practice my bending." Haru admitted. "He taught me everything I know."

Haru knelt down and begun twirling some small stones while he spoke about his father. When he is done, he turned the stones to sand, which falls through his fingers. Katara comes up and sits next to him.

"See this necklace?" She said while she points to her necklace "My mother gave it to me."

"It's beautiful." Haru said.

"I lost my mother in a Fire Nation raid." Katara explained "This necklace is all I have left of her."

"It's not enough, is it?" Haru asked, though it was clear that he already knew the answer.

"No." Katara admitted sadly.

Katara and Haru sit on the hill looking at the fading glory of the setting sun for a while.

After some time they start to walk down a path that goes past some mines when a boom is heard and rocks and dust come out of the mine entrance. The sound of an old man can be heard.

"Help!" He yells in a pained voice.

"The mine!" Haru yells and he and Katara run towards it.

They arrive at the mine entrance to find it blocked with an old man mostly buried in the blockage.

"Help me!" He yells out to them.

Just then the ground shakes a bit, and more earth threatens to fall on and crush the old man. Haru tries to prevent any more earth falling on the old man by bracing the collapsed mine entrance frame, while Katara tries to get the old man free.

"It's not working, we have to get help." Katara said while she struggled.

"There's no time pull harder." Haru replied.

"Haru, there's a way you can help him." Katara stated.

"I can't." Haru replied

"Please, there's no one around to see you, it's the only way." Katara pleaded.

Indecision dominates Haru's face for a few moments, but then he moves in front of the old man and turns to look back into the mine entrance. He concentrates and with a quick move of his hands and feet he pushes the obstruction of earth and stone back deep into the mine, freeing the old man, whom they help get up.

"Haru, you did it!" Katara stated happily.

* * *

><p>Soon thereafter Katara and Haru returned to the farm where Katara joined the others in the barn where she told the others what had happened. Aang was laying on Appa, Sokka laying on top a hay bale and Momo was looking out the window.<p>

"It was so brave of Haru to use his earthbending to help that old man." Katara said in obvious admiration.

"You must have really inspired him." Aang said, ignoring the jealousy he felt.

"I guess so." Katara said shyly.

"Everyone should get some sleep." Sokka said "We're leaving at dawn."

"Dawn?" Katara asked "Can't we sleep in for once?"

"Absolutely not! This village is crawling with Fire Nation troops." Sokka replied "If they discover you're here, Aang, we'll be eating fireballs for breakfast. Good night."

"I'd rather eat fireballs than nuts." Katara said with a smile on her face.

"Good night." Sokka said with finality.

Aang and Katara laugh, then Katara blows out their lamp.

* * *

><p>Later that night Fire Nation troops walk along a path leading to Haru's farm. Lamps on polls swing back and forth as they march. The soldier who extorted the money from the previous day leads the column. Aang get's woken by the sound of people approaching and quickly jumps up to see what is going on.<p>

He watches as the soldier knocks on Haru's house's door three times. The door opens to reveal Haru who gasps in surprise. At this point Aang notices the old man standing between the soldiers.

"That's him! That's the earthbender!" The old man says while pointing at Haru.

The soldiers quickly step forward and grab Haru and pulling him away. Meanwhile Aang jumps back inside and quietly runs to the others and shake them awake, while making sure that they don't scream.

"Fire nation soldiers where just here" He whispers to them. "They took Haru, seems the old man snitched on him."

"Oh no" Katara says "We have to save him."

"For now we should probably stick to tracking them." Sokka said.

"Why?" Both Katara and Aang asked.

"Because if we free him while on route they will just assume his mother is involved and go for her" Sokka stated.

"Still we need to go now if we want to be able to follow" Aang stated. "Katara go tell Haru's mother while me and Sokka get Appa ready.

* * *

><p>After half an hour they had overtaken the group that was leading Haru.<p>

"So what do we do now" Aang asked.

"We should probably just keep following them" Sokka said. "It's not like we can infiltrate the base any other way"

"We could just get me arrested for earthbending" Katara said.

"First of; how do you even going to earth bend?" Sokka asked, "And anyway it wouldn't achieve that much more so I don't know whether it would be worth it."

"I think I would have a better chance of faking earthbending" Aang added.

"Given time you wouldn't need to fake it" Sokka added "Though I don't think we should wait for that."

"Of cause not" Katara said "But we do need to get someone on the inside just to gather more information."

"In that case I'll do it" Aang said "while information gathering and infiltration where never my speciality I do have the basic understanding that any ninja must have."

After that he made a simple henge which was basically his normal looks just with hair and different clothing, and without the airbending tattoos.

"Shouldn't you change yourself a little more?" Sokka asked.

"Still need to keep my abilities secret, with this I can claim it to be a wig and some different clothing."

* * *

><p>The soldiers where getting close to the harbour where they where to take a ship when they heard screaming from the woods on their left.<p>

"I told you to get out of here, you lazy bum" One voice yelled.

"As if, I was here first you good for nothing thief" Another yelled back.

"Go in and find out what this is about" The leading soldier said to two of his men.

The two soldiers quickly arrived in a clearing where Sokka and an disguised Aang where in the middle of an argument.

"I was the one who found this clearing, so it's mine" Aang yelled and then used air to lift a fist-sized stone and hurl it at Sokka's shoulder, though Sokka barely managed to dodge.

"Your an earth bender" Sokka screamed and launched himself at Aang, knocking him to the ground "You've got 18 hours to get information, we'll be right behind you." He then whispered as the soldiers rushed forward to help restrain Aang.

"Thank you for your help in capturing one of the evil earthbenders" The soldier told Sokka before leading Aang back to the group.

After they left Sokka quickly made his way to another clearing where Appa, Momo and Katara where waiting.

"Well it worked" Sokka said as he arrived "For a happy-go-lucky kind of person he still has some planning skill".

"Yeah, though I think that what we just did is considered a pretty basic tactic where he comes from." Katara said "He said he was told of this tactic in his first year at the academy, so I think the only reason it was though was so that they wouldn't fall for it."

"True." Sokka admitted.

* * *

><p>After a boat ride Aang, Haru and the other earthbenders arrived at a prison rig, seemingly made completely out of metal.<p>

They can place in a line, standing side by side. After that the Warden shows up and starts addressing them.

"Earthbenders, it is my pleasure to welcome you aboard my modest shipyard." He began "I am your warden. I prefer to think of you not as prisoners, but as honored guests, and I hope you come to think of me as your humble and caring host." Aang had a hard time stopping himself from yelling out that what the warden was saying was bull shit, but managed to keep it in "You will succeed here if you simply abide by the rules. Simply treat me with the courtesy I give you and we'll get along famously. You will notice earthbenders, that this rig is made entirely of metal. You are miles away from any rock or earth, so if you have any illusions about employing that brutish savagery that passes for bending among you people, forget them. It is impossible. Good day."

When the Warden is done talking, he turns and walks towards his office as the prisoners are led away. The prisoners are lead to an open area on the rig where hopeless and forlorn looking prisoners roam around.

When they enter Haru starts looking around at the other people there seemingly trying to find someone. Aang discretely follows him, waiting for the right point to talk to him.

Soon Haru ran up to a old man who was currently eating.

"Dad" He said as he reached him.

"Haru, you shouldn't be here." The man said sadly.

"I got caught earthbending" Haru said.

"More like you where sold out by a person whose life you saved" Aang said from behind him, startling him.

"Is that you Aang?" He asked, confused by the hair and clothing.

"Yep" Aang said with a smile.

"How did you get here." Haru asked.

"The same way you did, I got added to your group shortly before we reached the boat." Aang said.

"Your the guy that got found earthbending in a clearing?" Haru asked. "But I didn't know you could earthbend."

"I can't but lifting a stone and sending it another person is something I can do" Aang said, "It looks like earthbending to those who doesn't have the necessary understanding."

"Who is this?" The man asked Haru

"This is Aang, he and his friends found me earthbending and we became friends." Haru said. "Aang, this is my father, Tyro."

"Glad to meet you" Aang said with a smile.

"Have some lunch, Aang" Tyro said, handing Aang a bowl.

Aang looks at it, slightly disgusted, but then says "Oh well, better then nuts" causing both Tyro and Haru to look at him weirdly.

After eating some of the food Aang puts aside his bowl.

"So, do you have any escape plans in the making?" Aang asked.

"Excuse me?" Tyro said suspiciously.

"You know, a plan to get everyone off the rig?" Aang said "Assassination, sabotage or attempting to get access to materials you can bend to take the guards out by force.

"The plan? The plan is to survive - wait out this war." Tyro responded "Hope that one day some of us can get back home and forget this ever happened."

"That sounds like you've already given up" Aang said, annoyed. This was Wave all over again except they didn't even have one person in which they placed their hope.

"Aang, I admire your courage and I envy your youth, but people's lives are at stake here." Tyro said "The Warden is a ruthless man, and he won't stand for any rebellion. I'm sorry, but we're powerless."

"You aren't powerless, merely cowardly and broken" Aang stated. "you outnumber the guards 5 to 1, the only thing they have on you is that they can bend. Even so, if I were to place a mountain of earth in front of you, you would still be to afraid to but up a resistance. With how lax the safety of this place it I could probably defeat all the guards on this base in one night, but it wouldn't be worth it to free a bunch of cowards who would lay down and die if the fire nation attacks your village again."

"What do you know" Tyro growled at Aang "You have no idea what we've been through."

"Maybe not, but I know that waiting and hoping someone else will come along and solve your problems for you is a cowards choice" Aang stated, "I can help you fight back, but if you don't help it will be meaningless. Unlike me many of you still have your families, some of whom are suffering under the fire nation far more then you are. Do you think you are doing them a favour by sitting here and saying that the only important thing is that you survive until the war ends."

"Stubborn brat." Tyro said "Your all talk anyway, there is no earth here anyway"

"I'll get you something to earthbend with" Aang stated, then stood up and started exploring the rig, leaving a clone behind so that he could explore it in depth without anyone noticing.

* * *

><p>That night Aang is woken when he fells Appa approaching from the air.<p>

"Your 18 hours are up, where's Haru?" Sokka asks from Appa's back when he sees that Aang is awake "We've got to get out of here."

"Change of plans" Aang said. "Get down here so Appa can get outside the range of the searchlight."

"What do you mean by a change of plans" Katara asked.

"We're going to help the earthbenders help themselves rather then just help Haru." Aang stated "I hate seeing people with broken spirits so I have to help them. Now get down here before you get us caught".

Katara immediately jump down followed by Sokka at a much slower pace. Aang told Appa to hide after which Appa left. Aang leads the others away knowing that guards should come by this point fairly soon.

"So do you have a plan?" Sokka asked.

"Well, I know what I want to archive, just not sure how to best get it done" Aang said "They have coal here which can be used for earthbending, the only problem is that I don't know how to get it down to the area where the earthbenders are. Well, I've brought down a few handfuls, but not enough to be really helpful in a fight."

"Hmm," Sokka said, while eyeing a nearby vent "I have an idea that might work."

* * *

><p>Katara and Sokka back in the prisoner deck area looking down into an enormous ventilation shaft which is capped by a grate.<p>

"It's almost dawn, we're running out of time!" Katara said nervously "Are you sure this is gonna work?"

"It should." Sokka said, "Though if it fails we still have Aangs clones transporting smaller amounts of coal as an alternative if it should fail. In other words; if this plan fails it just means less coal, not no coal." Sokka takes a breath, then starts elaborating the plan while he and Katara look down into the vent "There's a huge deposit of coal at the base of the silo, and the whole system is ventilated. Aang closed off all the vents except one. When he does his airbending, the coal only has one place to go; right back here."

Just as he finishes his explanation he and Katara look up to find themselves surrounded by fire nation soldiers while the prisoners stand a little behind the soldiers.

"There are the intruders!" One of the soldiers yell.

"Stay back, I'm warning you!" Sokka says while drawing his boomerang.

"Kids stop!" Tyro yelled at them. "You can't win this fight!"

Haru looks stunned at his father's pronouncement. A moment later the warden arrives.

"Listen to him well, children." The warden said "You're one mistake away from dying where you stand."

Just then the guards and warden got knocked back by pieces of coal flying at them from different directions. A moment later an undisguised Aang jumped up as well, making Sokka and Katara realize that his clones threw the coal before dispelling.

Then air begins to rush out of the went closely followed by dust and pebbles. Then a living river of coal erupts from the grate, eventually tearing it away. The coal shoots high into the air over the deck. The Warden is clearly shocked and dismayed by this event. The coal lands in a massive pile between the earthbenders and the firebenders, The prisoners look at the pile of earth that has just appeared. Aang drops from from his previous position onto the pile of coal.

"See, I kept my word" Aang said, mostly to Tyro, "I got you something to earthbend with. Now the only thing holding you back is your own cowardice. If you don't start fighting back your families will be doomed to poverty at best, rape and murder at worst. Is that really what you want? A hundred years ago the earthbenders where known for their unyielding spirit, show me that that hasn't changed"

Before the earthbenders had time to think on what was said another voice sounded "Hahaha! Foolish child!" The warden exclaimed "Unyielding spirit, what a joke. The earthbenders spirits were broken a long time ago. Oh? But you still believe in them? They're a waste of your energy, You've fai" He was interrupted by a small pile of coal smashing into his face, courtesy of Tyro. This is followed by a piece of coal to his stomach by Haru.

"Seems you underestimated our spirit" Tyro said. "You may have suppressed it, but it isn't broken."

"Now it's my turn" Aang stated, taking out his staff and creating a powerful wind sending the soldiers backwards shocking everyone except Katara, Sokka and Haru who all knew he was an airbender.

The warden manages to get back to his feet along with the other soldiers.

"Show no mercy!" The warden yells to the soldiers.

The Fire Nation line charges forward, unleashing a wall of flame. Tyro and the three nearest earthbenders, including Haru block it with a huge wall of coal, making the coal absorb the flames.)

"For the Earth Kingdom, attack!" Tyro yells.

He then slams the palms of his fists on the deck of the rig, throwing the wall of coal forward towards the Fire Nation line. The Fire Soldiers deflect some of the rocks with flame. At this point all of the prisoners have joined the rebellion and have assumed earthbending stances.

One on one the earthbenders block fire attacks with coal shields and knock out firebender by striking them huge lumps of coal thrown at high speed.

"I'll take care of the enemies on the catwalk, you should be able to take the one's down here" Aang yells and runs to the wall and airbends himself up. He then runs along the catwalk blowing soldiers into the water, quickly approaching the top of the door out of the holding area where the mechanism to open it was located.

Katara and Sokka rush forward. Sokka runs at some soldiers holding spears and cuts off the head of the spears with his boomerang and throws the spearheads to Momo who is flying close overhead . meanwhile Tyro and Haru stand in front of the coal dump. They raise a huge amount of coal, and then mash it between them to create a boulder. Haru and Tyro are about to throw the boulder when the doors start to open. They look up to see Aang standing at the lever to open the door.

"Get to the ship!" Tyro yells to his fellow earthbenders "We'll hold them off!"

"Do not let them escape!" The warden yells, quickly rallying some soldiers around him and they begin to barrage the exit with flame.

Aang jumps down from the wall between Katara and Sokka and is about to try and stop the fire benders when Tyro and Haru launch the 'coal boulder' at the warden which also momentarily stops the fire benders standing with him. Before they can recover Aang airbends a small tornado into existence, the end of which is aimed at the firebenders.

"Guys, throw me some coal!" He tells Katara and Sokka.

They quickly start dropping chunks of coal into the top of the little whirlwind, which accelerate down the wind tube and exit at high speed towards the firebenders and knocks them down.

While Aang, Katara and Sokka do this Tyro and some other earthbenders are bending more coal towards the warden and his men. The use the coal to create a platform underneath the warden and his men and then levitate the platform over the side of the rig, out of over the open water.

"No, please!" The warden yells "I can't swim!"

"Don't worry, I hear cowards float." Tyro responded before causing the platform to crumple, depositing the fire benders into the water.

Aang and the others start running to run towards the fire nations ships only getting into a few minor skirmishes along the way, though unknown to them during one of these skirmishes Katara loses her necklace.

Soon they are on-board the ships and steaming away from the rig. Appa with Sokka and Katara swim next to the point ship. Meanwhile Aang is with Tyro and Haru on the deck of the point ship.

"I want to thank you for saving us." Haru said to Aang.

"I merely helped you help yourself." Aang stated "It's part of the Avatars job, after all."

"Thank you for helping me find my courage, Avatar Aang." Tyro said, quickly recovering from the shock that Aang is the Avatar "My family and everyone here owes you much."

"So what do you intend to do now?" Aang asked.

"Take back my village." Tyro exclaims, then raises his voice "To take back ALL of our villages! The Fire Nation will regret the day they set foot on our land!"

The earthbenders on all of the ships start cheering at those words.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Poll:

For those who haven't already aware of it the poll is up.

As Jiopaba points out in a review I had misspelled Toph's name, but I have already fixed that.

Rasengan alternatives:

I have been thinking of the effects I want the other rasengans to have, but I am having trouble with names and looks of them.

Fire rasengan: incinerator, turns whatever it touches to as, including potentially the person creating it.

Water rasengan: attracts water near it, including that which is inside the body.

Earth rasengan: creates powerful vibrations within whatever it touches. If used on a person it turns their bones to dust, if you on the ground it creates an earthquake and could potentially damage the tectonic plates.

If someone has suggestions, whether it be name, looks or change of effect I would be happy to receives it. Don't bother with lightning rasengan, since it isn't a main bending element.

Story note:

Kinda sad that Katara didn't get to be the hero here, but I just couldn't see Aang allowing her to do the infiltration when his own abilities where more suited for it.


	7. The Spirit World

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: Sorry about the long wait, there's a short explanation after the chapter for those interested. I hope that the chapter is worth the wait.

* * *

><p>"I think I got it" Sokka stated as they flew through the sky on Appa "I finally think I've figured out that chakra thing."<p>

Naruto immediately activated his byakugan and looked at Sokka and said "show me"

Sokka put his hands in the molding position.

"Yep you've got it." Naruto confirmed. "Now we can start teaching you. I'll show you the basic for the clone technique for now. Next time we land I'll collect some leaves to teach you an control exercise as well"

"Why haven't you given Katara any of those control exercises" Sokka asked suspiciously.

"First of because she has better natural control then you" Naruto said bluntly "But mostly because she will focus on the skills that supplement her water bending, while you will focus on those that help with close combat. Since she doesn't benefit as much from running across vertical surfaces as you do it seemed better to focus on things to confuse the opponents."

"But I still need to learn that clone thing?" Sokka asked.

"Yeah, being able to confuse the opponent can still be helpful in close combat after all." Naruto stated "She'll also learn the control exercises, but I'm just not teaching you in the same order."

"Oh, okay then" Sokka relented.

Meanwhile Katara is looking down at the landscape below, resting from he training with the substitution technique (Aang had his glider in his hand to dive after her if she substituted herself over the side of Appa by accident).

"Those clouds look so soft, don't they?" She said after the other two had stopped their discussion "Like you could just jump down and you'd land in a big, soft cottony heap."

"Maybe you should give it a try" Sokka said sarcastically.

"You're hilarious." Karata responded, rolling her eyes.

Aang, despite knowing that he couldn't land on the cloads, yelled "I'll try it! Yehhhh!" before jumping of Appa and dives towards a cloud. Sokka and Katara look over the side of Appa as he plunges through a cloud. A moment later Aang landed next to them with his glider, wet from head till toe.

"Turns out clouds are made of water!" He states.

"You look like you've been run through by a bunch of Katara's clones" Sokka states, earning a glare from his sister.

Meanwhile Aang just uses airbending to dry himself.

Before their argument could go any further Katara looked at where they where heading and exclaimed "Hey, what is that?"

Sokka and Aang turned towards the front to see the floor of part of the valley ahead of was black instead of the green of the surrounding area.

"It's like a scar." Sokka stated.

* * *

><p>Shortly after that they arrive in the damaged area<em>.<em> Burnt tree stumps dot the barren landscape. The three dismount Appa and start walking around.

"Listen, it's so quiet." Sokka said somberly "There's no life anywhere." He then kneels to inspect some footprints on the ground.

"Aang, are you ok?" Katara said as she saw that he was looking around sadly.

Meanwhile Sokka finishes his inspection "Fire Nation!" He states "Those evil savages make me sick! They have no respect for..."

"Shh!" Katara shushes him.

"What?" Sokka whispers to her "I'm not allowed to be angry?"

Katara pointed ahead at Aang who was clearly upset. A moment later he sank to his knees in the dust, sighed and began to run his hands through the burnt earth.

"This is such a waste" he said sadly "How could I let this happen?"

"Aang, you didn't let this happen." Katara tried to console him as she walked closer to him "It has nothing to do with you."

"Yes it does." Aang stated "I might not have wielded the fire, but I also wasn't here to wield the water as an Avatar should have been. But, I don't know how to fulfill my task".

"That's why we're going to the North Pole to find you a teacher." Katara stated.

"Yeh, a waterbending teacher," Aang stated, "But that doesn't teach me how to be the Avatar. Monk Gyatso said that Avatar Roku would help me."

"The Avatar before you?" Sokka asked "He died over a hundred years ago, how are you supposed to talk to him?"

"I don't know." Aang admitted sadly. A moment later Momo crawls into his lap and he starts petting it.

* * *

><p>While Aang had become a little stunted towards the destruction of nature due to his ninja carrier, the destruction of a forest made him think of Yamato and how he could make a new one grow in seconds. This in turn made him think of hiss other friend and how he wasn't likely to see them again.<p>

"Hey Aang, are you ready to be cheered up?" Katara asked from behind him

"No." Aang said, then suddenly rolled to the side when he felt something approach and saw an acorn fly past him.

"Hey, how was that suppose to cheer me up?" Aang asked as he stood up.

"Well if it had hit it might have cheered me up" Sokka stated, only to receive an acorn to his head from Katara which drew a smirk from Aang, though it quickly fell. "Ow! Yeah, I probably deserved that." was all Sokka said in response as he rubbed his head.

"These acorns are everywhere, Aang." Katara said as she smiled at him and knelt beside him. Meanwhile, behind Aang, Momo was digging furiously in the scorched earth, and a moment later emerged with his arms full of acorns. "That means the forest will grow back. Every one of these will be a tall oak tree someday," She handed him the acorn "and all the birds and animals that lived here will come back."

"Thanks, Katara." Aang said with a smile, despite her misunderstanding the reason he was sad.

Just then Aang feels someone approaching and jump to his feet, startling Katara and they all turn to see and old man approaching them, or more specifically Aang.

"Hey, who are you?" Sokka asked the man.

The man ignores him as he continues towards Aang "When I saw the flying bison, I thought it was impossible, but those markings!" The mans said as he came to a halt in front of Aang "are you the Avatar child?"

After a quick assessment of the man Aang decides to trust him and nods his head.

"My village desperately needs your help." The old man then said.

Aang quickly exchanges a glance with Katara before saying: "Lead the way".

* * *

><p>A little while later Katara, Sokka and Aang were entering the old mans village. Aang immediately noticed some badly damaged buildings on their left, one of which was down to only a wooden skeleton left. The continue walking towards one of the larger buildings, still following the old man.<p>

As soon as they enter the building the old man addressed the people there: "This young person is the Avatar."

Immediately another man walked up to them and said: "So the rumors of your return are true." He then bowed as he continued "It is the greatest honor of a lifetime to be in your presence."

"Nice to meet you too." Aang said before looking around the room "So is there something I can help you with?"

"I'm not sure" The man says as he looks around with a pained expression.

The old man quickly steps up to the man. "Our village is in crisis, he's our only hope." He then turns to Aang "For the last few days at sunset a spirit monster comes and attacks our village. He is Hei-Bai, the black and white spirit."

"Why is it attacking you?" Sokka asked, slightly suspicious.

The chief moved towards the threshold of the doorway that the group just entered, looking at the setting sun while he said: "We do not know, but each of the last three nights he has abducted one of our own. We are especially fearful because the winter solstice draws near."

"What happens then?" Katara asked.

"As the solstice approaches, the natural world and the spirit world grow closer and closer until the line between them is blurred completely." The old man answered.

"Hei-Bai is already causing devastation and destruction." The other man elaborated. "Once the solstice is here there is no telling what will happen."

"So, what do you want me to do exactly?" Aang asked slowly.

"Who better to resolve a crisis between our world and the spirit world than the Avatar himself?" The old man asked as he approached Aang "You are the great bridge between man and spirits."

"Yep, I'll find a way to deal with it" Aang said confidently.

"Hey, 'great bridge guy', can I talk to you over here for a second?" Katara asked Aang.

Katara walked over to a nearby window with Aang and Sokka Following. Since the window is away from most of the people Katara see's it as being a good place for a private conversation. Had Aang been asked he would have pointed out that people could hide just outside the window, but wasn't really that concerned about it at that point.

"Aang, are you sure you know how to do this?" Katara asked.

"Well I don't know how to do it, but I'll just improvise." Aang responded.

Katara didn't look to sure. "So, you can help these people?" She asked, trying to get a straight answer.

"I have to try, don't I?" Aang responded "Maybe whatever I have to do will just ... come to me."

Just then Momo jumped onto Aang's shoulder and chittered. Aang was slightly surprised, but then smiled.

"I think you can do it, Aang." Katara stated while smiling at him.

"Yehhh," Sokka said with a smile similar to his sister "we're all gonna get eaten by a spirit monster."

* * *

><p>Later in the afternoon, as the sun is setting, Aang moves out of the meetinghouse and moves towards the entrance to the village. He grips his staff tightly as an extra security.<p>

"Hello? Spirit, can you hear me?" Aang said as he neared the gate "This is the Avatar speaking. I'm here to get you to tell me what's got you attacking these people, and if necessary stop you myself."

Meanwhile, back at the meeting house all the villagers, along with Katara and Sokka, are watching him, though Sokka isn't to happy about staying behind.

"This isn't right." He stated "We can't sit here and cower while Aang waits for some monster to show up."

The old man who lead them to the village steps up behind the two.

"If anyone can save us, he can." He stated confidently.

"He still shouldn't have to face this alone." Sokka said, staring out the window as the sun sets.

"The sun has set. Where are you, Hei-Bai?" Aang yelled "Well, spirit, uh, I hereby ask you to please leave this village in peace!"

He then twirled his staff like a marching baton before planting it in the ground like a flag, all the while having an resolute expression on his face. As he stood there he started gathering nature energy find out whether the spirit was coming or not. As he did that he noticed that it was easier then usual, and the moment he entered sage mode he understood why. Hei-bai, who was just entering the village, was expelling a large amount of nature energy from it's body, though oddly enough it felt like the spirit was actually weakened. It was like being covered in toad oil, you didn't need to concentrate that much to pull the nature energy to you, you only needed to ensure that you didn't hold on to too much.

Hei-Bai was as big as a house, with six legs and black and white orca-like markings all over his body. He is vaguely mammalian and has razor sharp teeth. It's arrival had also brought with it something that could only be described as spirit whispers.

"I'm pretty sure that you must be the Hei-Bai spirit." He stated, locking eyes with it while giving a shallow bow. "My name is" He began before jumping to the side as the spirit opened his mouth. He had feared that it was a destructive attack, but was relived to mind that it was just a natural energy inforced roar, which wouldn't do any damage, except maybe to his eardrums.

The spirit rears itslef itself up on its hind-most legs and bellows, releasing another jet of blue energy from its mouth. It gets back on all six legs and then charges into further into the village only to receive a nature enhanced kick from Aang.

"Hey, don't just ignore me" Aang said. "I was about to tell you that my nam..."

The creature suddenly moved past him at high speed, leaving a ghostly image in it's wake, and ran up to one house and destroying it. Before it could run to another Aang was in it way again.

"My name is Aang" He stated, "I'm the Avatar and I would like to help!" He was then forced to hit it away once again as it went for one of the other buildings.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile Sokka is getting ready to join the fight, not liking how this was looking right now.<p>

"The Avatar's methods are unusual." The village leader said as the spirit was hit once more "Though they do seem to minimize the damage to the buildings.

"But he only seems to be delaying it." Sokka stated. "Maybe we should go help him?"

"No, only the Avatar stands a chance against the Hei-Bai." The old man stated. "He is fighting it on equal terms, after all.!

"Aang will figure out the right thing to do, Sokka." Katara added.

* * *

><p>"Please, would you stop trying to destroy everything things and listen?" Aang yelled, only to have to kick the spirit again to prevent it from destroying a building. 'I don't know what is worse; him ignoring me despite me attacking him or his obsession with destroying this village.'<p>

At that point the Hei-bai decides that since Aang is intent on getting in it's way it will deal with him first. Aang immediately saw that the Hei-bai was aiming to swat him away, and jumped back to avoid it. However he forgot to take one thing into account; Hei-bai used nature energy. He became aware of this when one of the after images of it's arm suddenly extended and hit him, causing him to fly into a nearby building. Luckily he still had sage mode active, which absorbed a bit of the damage.

* * *

><p>"That's it!" Sokka said as he saw this "He needs help!" Completely ignoring the fact that Aang was a better fighter then he was. He then ran towards the door.<p>

"Sokka wait!" Katara yelled as she ran after him, realizing that he wouldn't be of much help.

Sokka quickly reached the door, opened it and ran outside. Katara on the other hand was stopped when the village leader grabbed her arm.

"It's not safe!" He stated as he pulled her back in side.

Soon Sokka arived where the spirit was towering over Aang.

"Hei-Bai!" Sokka yelled as he came to a stop and pulled out his boomerang "Over here!"

He threw the boomerang at the creature which hit the creature's butt, and bounced off with a spring-like sound before falling to the ground. Sokka then ran up to Aang.

"Sokka, go back!" Aang yelled as his face returned to normal, indicating that he left sage mode.

"We'll fight him together, Aang." Sokka stated, ignoring Aang.

"Not that I don't appre..." Aang began, but was cut of when the creature came up behind them and grabbed Sokka before they disappear in an instant.

Aang opened his staff into glider mode and took off after them, flying through the opening in the trees using the opening that mark the path into the village. Behind him he just managed to hear Katara panicking scream;

"Sokka!"

Aang just continued gliding at breakneck speed through the forest in pursuit of Hei-Bai, who is still carrying Sokka in it's grip while Sokka makes scared noises. Aang managed to pull even with it and then began to pass it.

"Aang, over here!" Sokka yelled when he saw him.

This distracted Aang so that he almost hit a branch and was forced to slow down to avoid it.

Aang speed up again and tried to catch up once again. Soon Hei Bai and Aang enter the wasteland that Katara, Sokka and Aang had landed in earlier. Without the trees Aang is able to speed up some more. As he nears the spirit Sokka sees him coming.

"Help!" He yells needlessly.

"Hang on, Sokka!" Aang yells back as he descends towards him.

Aang glided in closer, stretching his hand to Sokka, who was able to grab it. Just as Aang began to pull Sokka free, however, both Sokka and the monster vanish while Aang body fell out of the sky.

* * *

><p>A short time later he woke up and yelled out; "Sokka!" He then looked around before stating "I failed."<p>

After a moment he got up, deciding that he needed to tell Katara what had happened, and ran towards the village. As he neared the village he saw Katara sitting at the gate (with Sokka's boomerang in one hand) as the old man comes up to her.

"I'm sure they'll be back." The guy said.

'He's either ignoring me, or he needs to get his eyes checked.' Aang thought.

"I know." Katara replied.

'Okay, she hasn't seen me either' Aang thought as he arrived beside them, none of them acknowledged his presence

"You should get some rest." The old man said as he draped a blanket over her shoulders.

"Hey, don't you see me, I'm right here" Aang stated in an annoyed voice.

Meanwhile Katara pulled her arms closer around her, putting the boomerang close to her heart.

"Everything's gonna be okay." Katara said more to herself then to the old guy.

"Okay, so no-one can see me now?" Aang asked. He then noticed something weird he hadn't noticed before "This is my old body, I'm Naruto instead of Aang." Though he was still wearing similar clothing to Aang, though larger to fit his frame.

"Your brother is in good hands." The old man stated, cutting into Naruto/Aang train of thought "I would be shocked if the Avatar returned without him."

"Well, to a certain degree he is wrong about that" Naruto thought sadly. He looks up to see the sun rising.

"The sun is rising." The old man stated "Perhaps he will return soon."

"There is only one explanation for the fact that I can't be seen and am in my old body" Naruto/Aang said to himself "I'm in the spirit world."

The old man left a moment later leaving Katara (and Naruto/Aang) alone. Soon thereafter Katara stood up and leaned against one of the gate posts.

"I'll figure this out, Katara, that's a promise." Naruto/Aang stated "Like they said, I'm the bridge between the worlds, right? I just need to figure out what I have to do and once I do that, I'll have no problem."

Naruto/Aang then heard a noise and looked to his right,and sees Appa moved along the outside of the wall towards Katara and him.

"Appa! Hey buddy, I'm right here." Naruto/Aang said, hoping that his animal guide could feel or see him. Appa grunted and put his nose up to Katara. "But, I guess you can't see me either." He added when Appa showed no sign of acknowledging his presence.

Appa grunted at Katara once again, this time louder and made her look up at him.

"It's ok, Appa. I'm sure they're on their way back." Katara said to him while petting his noise "I bet they even found you a bunch of moon peaches for a treat."

Katara then walked back into the village, with Appa following along. Aang watched as them go before turning back to the forest path.

"What am I supposed to do?" Naruto/Aang asked himself thoughtfully, before yelling. "Avatar Roku, how can I talk to you?"

When no response was given, Naruto/Aang started to gather nature energy again to see if he could use sage mode to find Sokka or Hei-Bai. He quickly found that holding on to it without a body was quite hard to manage and didn't allow him to enter sage mode. What he didn't know was that it made his spirit visible in the real world, so had anyone been looking they would have seen a ghostlike Naruto (not that any of them would know who it was) standing at the gate. Naruto stopped gathering the chakra and looked along the path only to see something approaching fast.

"Sokka?" He asked hopefully, though he realized that is wasn't very likely. A moment later he manages to see what looks like a ghost dragon heading towards him."That's definitely not Sokka!"

He opened his glider and took flight back into the village, but he hit the ground again a few feet away. He got up and tried to airbend the glider off the ground, but nothing happened. Aang looked down at his hands in annoyance.

"So I can't airbend or use sage mode in the spirit world!" He concluded looking back at the dragon who approached his position quickly. "And I wouldn't be able to run from it for long without them."

A moment later the dragon landed in front of him and looked down upon him.

"You don't know where Sokka is, do you?" Naruto/Aang asked, trying to figure out how to fight if the dragon attacked.

In response, the dragon bend its head down and touched Naruto's/Aang's head with one of its whiskers which caused his eyes glow with a blue fire , before he received a vision of Avatar Ruko ride on the dragon who was right in front of him. After the dragon is sure that Naruto/Aang got the message it removed its whisker.

"You're Avatar Roku's animal guide! Like Appa is to me." Naruto/Aang stated in realization "I need to save my friend and I don't know how. Is there some way for me to talk to Roku?"

The dragon just bend its neck and Aang jumps on.

"I'll be back Katara." Naruto/Aang said while looking back at the village. He then turned back to the dragon "Take me to Roku!"

* * *

><p>After flying through the sky for some time they soon approach a volcanic island. It had a beautiful Fire Temple on it, which they entered before the dragon flew straight towards the ceiling.<p>

"Hey, what are you doing!" Naruto/Aang yelled just before they hit the ceiling while putting an arm protectively in front of him.

However instead of crashing into the ceiling they passed through harmlessly and arrive in a secret room that only holds one statue. The dragon landed and Naruto/Aang dismounted and walked toward the statue.

"I don't understand." Naruto/Aang said as he identified the statue. "This is just a statue of Roku."

Naruto/Aang looked back at the dragon, which touched him on the temple once again. This time the vision was of a huge, flaming comet rocketing through the sky. The vision ended as the dragon broke contact.

"Is that what Roku wants to talk to me about? A comet?" Naruto/Aang asked for clarification, while glancing back at the statue "When can I talk to him?"

The dragon lowered its head in response and revealed that the sun shone through a tiny window high up in the ceiling. The shaft of light, previously blocked by the dragon, now hit the wall near Roku's right shoulder. The dragon touched Naruto/Aang again and a vision of time passing at the Fire Temple began. He was shown the temple from the outside as clouds flew by at incredible speed overhead and the sun ran its daily course in a matter of seconds. Three days past in this fashion before the vision returned to the floor of the statue's chamber focusing on two Asian written characters that are on the floor. The vision than focuses on the beam of light that enters the little window. Days past in rapid succession there as well making it clear that each day the spot where the shaft of sunlight hit the back wall gets closer to hitting the statue's face. After that the dragon breaks the connection again.

"It's a calendar, and the light will reach Roku on the solstice!" Naruto/Aang realized before turning to the dragon "So, that's when I'll be able to speak to Roku?" This got him a grunt of confirmation from the dragon "But I can't wait that long. I need to save Sokka now." He then jumps onto the dragon again and they take of again, leaving the island behind them.

Naruto/Aang and the dragon fly through the wasteland at the edge of the forest and Naruto/Aang realized that they are heading straight for a bear statue with Aangs body sitting on top of it. Naruto/Aang braced himself for impact, but he just fluently rejoined his own body as the dragon disappeared into the statue. Aang wakes up, now back in the material world. He jumped down off the statue and turned to stare in wonder at it. After looking at the bear statue, Aang opened his glider and flew back toward the village. As he returned he saw Katara looking downcast while standing on the porch of the meetinghouse. She looked away briefly but as she turned back he knew that she's seen him as a smile spread on her face and the moment he landed she rushed to hug him. Meanwhile Momo flew to him in order to perch on his shoulders.

"You're back!" Katara exclamed happily "Where's Sokka?" She added, hoping that Aang would tell her that Sokka was on his way.

"I'm not sure." Aang said, "But I may have figured out how to communicate with Hei-Bai, though I won't know until it turns up."

"Really, how?" Katara asked.

"I'll tell you later, okay?" Aang asked.

"Okay, after Sokka returns then" She agreed.

* * *

><p>Once the sun had set Aang started gathering nature energy to make it easier to find Hei-bai. He was standing at the gate to the village to intercept it once it entered but he wasn't happy to find that it was already in the village. He quickly ran towards the building, but as he reached it the Hei-bai broke through the roof of it. It roars in triumph, releasing blue energy from its mouth. Aang made an air shell to repel the debris from the building.<p>

"Aang, what are you doing?" Katara yelled from inside the meeting house "Run!"

Upon hearing Katara's voice Hei-bai roared and ran toward the meeting house, but Aang ran after it and jumped over its back and used air-bending to turn around in the air and touched his hand to its forehead. Trying to use the ability to mentally communicate with spirits that Ruko's dragon had used on him. His hand glowed light blue, and Aang saw a panda bear overlapping the monster. Aang jumped back to the porch of meeting house.

"You're the spirit of this forest." Aang realized "Now I understand. You're upset and angry because your home was burned down. When I saw the forest had burned I was sad and upset." While part of that sadness hadn't been related to the forest himself, some of it had been, therefore he didn't feel that it was a lie "But my friend gave me hope that the forest would grow back."

When he finished, he showed Hei-Bai the acorn that Katara gave him. The spirit smiled and Aang placed the acorn on the porch. Hei-bai picked up the acorn and transformed into its natural form, a panda, and then turned and walked away to the village gate. As the panda exited the gate a thicket of bamboo grew to man height in seconds behind it. A moment later, Sokka and a few villagers exited the thicket looking confused.

"Sokka!" Katara yelled as she ran up to hug him. The villagers followed behind her to hug their own loved ones.

"What happened?" Sokka asked in a confused tone of voice.

"You were trapped in the Spirit world for 24 hours." Katara stated "How are you feeling?" She added worriedly.

Sokka gained a pained expression "Like I seriously need to use the bathroom!" He answered while holding his crotch and moved towards the nearest place to empty his bladder.

After Sokka had finished doing his business the three of them meet in front of the village leader, surrounded by different villagers.

"Thank you, Avatar." The leader said to them formally with a happy expression "If there only were a way to repay you for what you've done."

"You could give us some supplies and some money." Sokka stated while smiling as well.

Katara wasn't happy about his choice of words and elbowed him in the side and said "Sokka" with an angry expression.

"What?" Sokka said "We need stuff." he added.

The chief bowed to them "It would be an honor to help you prepare for your journey." He stated before leaving.

Once he left Katara turned to Aang.

"I'm so proud of you, Aang." Katara said proudly while smiling at him. "You figured out what to do all on your own."

"Actually, I did have a little help." Aang said nervously "And there's something else."

"What is it?" Sokka asked.

"I need to talk to Roku and I think I've found a way to contact his spirit." Aang stated.

"That's great!" Katara said with a smile.

"Creepy, but great." Sokka added.

"There's a temple on a crescent shaped island, and if I go there on the solstice I'll be able to speak with him." Aang explained

"But, the solstice is tomorrow." Katara responded

"Yeh, and there's one more problem." Aang stated "The island is in the Fire Nation."

This got shocked and scared expressions from the two others.

* * *

><p>AN:

Chapter delay: I already knew at the end of the last chapter that this chapter wouldn't come as soon as the previous ones, but I had planned to upload it around Christmas or new-year, however my hard-drive broke down completely, meaning that I lost all my chapter notes because I hadn't made a safety of it. After I got a new one I was lacking in time to write, and was mostly using my other computer (where I write another story that I might upload soon).

Shinobi Naruto/Aang: It was commented that Naruto's ninja skills aren't used that often (the way I understood the review), and my answer to that is that because he spend a lot of time living Aangs life his previous abilities are rusty and his instincts are more towards using airbending. He will of cause return to using his ninja skills more often, but he is still trying to keep them a secret until he gets into a situation where he really needs them. That being said the fact is that Naruto has always been more of a taijutsu fighter, both his shadow clones and rasengan mostly support his close range fighting as well, so it isn't like he will suddenly start sprouting ninjutsu left and right.

Mai: One person asked me to add her to the harem, but that will not happen. I might not be a big Zuko fan, but those two should stay together in my opinion. In order to fit her into Aangs harem I would need to change her too much, and I like the character the way she is.

Azula: She seems to be quite popular, since more then one person has tried to get me to add her to the harem. Due to some argumentation I have changed her fate slightly, but she still isn't planned to be a part of Aangs harem for multiple reasons: She doesn't fit mentally with Naruto/Aang, and making her fit would make her OOC, something I would rather like to avoid. She also doesn't fit with the other girls in Naruto's harem, especially Katara and Suki. The other reasons for not adding her are some I will keep to myself until later in the story, because they are connected with future events.

Rasengans (thanks to Jiopaba for his input.):

These still aren't completely done yet, especially the earth rasengan seems lacking. I also still need suggestions for how the different ones should look.

Fire rasengan: Rasenenjo: When hurled leaves a huge swirling vortex of flames behind it, destroying the air along its path and sucking everything inwards in its trail before the entire path erupts into a huge explosion of flame and the point of impact is basically disintegrated like a direct hit from a Rasenshuriken, just with incredible heat that instantly sublimates everything it hits into a gas. Weakness': If it isn't hurled strongly enough its direction becomes unstable and it can start flying in random directions. It can also be rather fragile so it can explode before reaching it's target.

Water rasengan: Rasenmaki: When used it absorbs any water nearby, including from the user, once it hit something it crushes whatever is utterly, and then explodes like the Nidaime or Kisame just fired off their strongest water technique, releasing all the water it collected, including the water chakra used to create it. This would be the sort of thing which alters the entire terrain, adding like five feet of standing water until it drains away. It could wash away a whole army in a single blow. If used underwater or hurled into water, it'd hit, drill straight into the ocean or pond or lake or whatever, and then all the water in a huge area around it would start swirling and collapsing inward, creating a huge whirlpool almost instantly. Instant fleet-killer. Drag in a dozen ships in an area half a mile across and grind them into scrap. Weakness': If held to long it absorbs the liquid in the users body, making them useless, if not killing them outright. Changing the terrain might not be helpful for ones allies, making it a double edged sword, and the same is true for the whirlpool version

Earth rasengan: Rasenterra? Rasendo? Raseniwa?: Unlike the static form that most other rasengans have, this one is unstable and constantly vibrating at an incredible pace. Anything it touches has to follow it vibrations or it will grind them to dust. This means that if used on a person it turns their bones to dust and if used on the ground it creates an earthquake. It could potentially damage the person using it and if used on the ground it could potentially damage the tectonic plates, messing up the very makeup of a planet.


	8. Avatar Roku

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: My speed for this chapter definitely improved. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p>"Just to make sure I've got it right" Sokka said after they had helped the villagers stock Appa with supplies, "You want us to go to an island in the fire nation so that you can talk to some dead guy about a dream a dragon gave you?"<p>

"Vision, not dream" Aang corrected."but apart from that I think you got it right"

"And this isn't crazy because...?" Sokka asked

"It might be crucial to finding out how to stop the fire nation from taking over" Aang answered as he walked up to Appa and started turning him using it's reins.

"I still don't know whether it's a good idea, maybe we can find another place where you can contact it." Sokka

"Look, I can always just go visit alone" Aang replied "I'll just come back and get you afterward."

At that point Appa stopped moving and caused Aang to pull more fiercely in its reins.

Aang groaned. "Let's go Appa!" Aang stated "Come on, boy!" His only reply was a growl. "Look, I'm sorry, but Katara and Sokka aren't coming to the Fire Nation with us. We'll come back for them afterwards, so let's go!"

Aang continued to pull on Appa's reins while Appa continued to remain immovable. Aang pulled so hard on the reins that the elastic pulled he back forward, leaving him sitting on the ground.

"I think he's trying to tell you something." Sokka stated.

"Please don't go, Aang." Katara stated "The world can't afford to lose you to the Fire Nation. Neither can I."

Aang though briefly about his vision before he got up from the ground and walked towards Sokka and Katara, ignoring the warmth that Katara's last words triggered.

"But I have to talk to Avatar Roku to find out what my vision means." Ang stated "I need to get to the Fire Temple before the sun sets on the Solstice. That's today. " (it was past midnight by that point).

Aang jumped up onto Appa's back and looked back hesitatingly at Sokka and Katara while making Appa move forward slowly. Sokka and Katara jumped in front of Appa.

"We're not letting you go into the Fire Nation, Aang." Katara stated

"At least not without your friends." Sokka added "We got your back."

Momo jumped up onto Aang's arm and chittered happily. _Appa then licked Sokka from feet to head._

"EWWWWW" Sokka yelled in response.

"It's a long journey to the Crescent Island." The chief said while walking up to Appa and handing Aang a parsel that contained the last of the supplies."You'll have to fly fast to have any chance of making it before sundown. Good luck."

"Thank you, for your….." Aang began, but was cut off.

"Go!" The elder said with urgency while pointing away.

* * *

><p>Later that day, around midday, Aang realized that Appa was slowing down<p>

"Come on, boy!" He said to Appa "We've got a long way to go! Faster!" this got him to speed up. Aang then turned to Sokka. "I just remembered that I needed to talk to you about your actions against Hei-bai. While I appreciate you coming to help, you aren't really a good improviser, so next time try and think up a plan ahead of time instead of rushing in."

Sokka was about to respond when Katara cut him of. "Aang, we got trouble." she said looking down at the fire nation ship that was following them.

"Yeah, and its gaining fast!" Sokka added when he looked down as well.

A few moments later they watched as a fireball approached them at high speed from the ship.

"Fire ball!" Katara warned, causing Aang to look down and see it.

"I'm on it!" He said before pulling Appa's reins to get him to change cause. They dove slightly to get below the fireball then swerved to the side.

"We have to get out of Zuko's range before he shoots another hot stinker at us!" Katara stated while covering her nose with her hand.

"Can't you make Appa go any faster?" Sokka asked, temporarily removing his own hands.

"Yeah, but there's just one little problem." Aang stated, covering his nose with two fingers and indicating ahead of them where a lot of fire nation ships where forming a blockade.

"If we fly north we can go around the Fire Nation ships and avoid the blockade." Aang stated, taking, trying to find a way out of this mess "It's the only way."

"There's no time." Katara said.

"Any other ideas?" Aang asked.

"Let's run this blockade." Sokka stated.

"Appa! Yip! Yip!" Aang then said, not having any alternative. He got an affirmative growl from Appa as he speed up. Aang then turned to the others "Try and direct chakra to your hands and fit to increase your grip, cause this is going to be a bumpy ride" He added. He knew that they didn't really have any training in this particular exercise, but it might help enough."

Ahead of them all the war ships in the blockade started launching fire balls at the same time.

"This seems to be the end of keeping my abilities secret" Aang stated as the fire balls race towards them. Appa swerved and dipped and dived to avoid the fire balls. Aang hands were tight around Appa's reins as he tried to help the Bison avoid the fire balls. When he saw one he wasn't sure he could dodge he created a clone and had it block the projectile with a blast of air, sending it to the side. The clone then dispelled, hoping to remain unseen by the other parties of the fight. A few pieces of coal fell onto Appa, but nothing damaging, though it did get an angry growl from Appa_._

"Appa! Are you ok?" Aang asked just to be sure, getting an affirmative growl from the bison.

After that he saw some cloud and lead Appa into it before creating a lot of clones, holding copies of his glider and had them jump down and hover under Appa to intercept any attacks from below. Just after they where in position 12 fireballs shot through the clouds in a little front of them, smoke trailing behind swerved to avoid another one that came from below with Aang's clones following along. Just then more fireballs appear directly in front of them, and soon it seemed to be coming from everywhere, though Appa and Aang where constantly diving and rising or swerving to the side to avoid it. Then two of the projectiles where posed to collide right in front of them, but Aangs clones managed to divert them, though it ended with quite a few of them getting hit and popping out of existence. More shots came at them, but they where easy enough to evade and soon they where moving past the blockade, relatively unharmed, though also quite tired from the excitement. (AN. Yeah, I removed some of the excitement by not having Sokka fall of, but with Aang's clones it just wasn't a possibility.)

"We made it!" Aang yelled happily once he was sure that they weren't being fired at anymore. He looked back at Sokka and Katara who both had looks of shock and amazement on their faces.

"We got into the Fire Nation…" He stated in disbelief before his shoulders slump "Great…"

* * *

><p>later, as the sun began to set, Appa showed signs of fatigue, while all his passengers asleep upon him. Sokka and Katara in Appa's saddle while Aang sleeps on Appa's head with Momo sleeping on his. Suddenly Momo wakes and straightens up on top of Aang waking him up and causing him to do the same action as Momo, looking ahead at an island.<p>

"There it is!" Aang said, his face lighting up in recognition "The island Roku's dragon took me to!" He added and looked at the two others who had just woken up.

Ahead of them a crescent shaped island could be seen through the clouds. In the center of the crescent was a large, active volcano. Fire and steam belched forth from its cone. Aang directed Appa to fly directly to the temple that could be seen on the island, and a few moments later they landed. Aang patted Appa's face lovingly in thanks for his hard work.

"You did it buddy." He complements the bison "Nice flying."

Appa groaned in response before he rolled onto his side in pure exhaustion. Katara walked up to Appa and began to rub his tummy. Meanwhile Sokka isn't paying attention to the bison at all, because he is busy stretching out after the flight.

"Oh! You must be tired!" Katara said to Appa while she continued rubbing his stomach.

"No." Sokka replied while stretching out, thinking that Katara was talking "I'm good." He added as he began jogging in place "Refreshed and ready to fight some firebenders."

Katara turned towards Sokka with a wry look on her face and stated "I was talking to Appa."

This cause to stop jogging "Well," He began and when he saw Momo out of the corner of if his eyes he continued "I was talking to Momo."

Momo, who hanging upside down from a nearby tree, chittered and looked quizzically at Sokka.

Opting not to comment on the obvious lie, Aang instead said "We better go now, we are running out of time.

They slowly moved up the stays to the temple, keeping an eye out for ambushes. Soon the arrive at the temple and knelt behind a small wall that surrounded the temple.

"I don't see any guards." Sokka stated, still looking for any opponents.

"The Fire Nation must have abandoned the temple when Avatar Roku died." Katara stated, giving her best guess at the lack of guards.

"Its almost sundown." Aang stated "We'd better hurry." He continued as he jumped over the wall with the other following him. "But keep alert" He added as he ran into the temple. Once inside the a big room the tip-toeing through it, but when about halfway through it Sokka stopped in mid tip-toe.

"Wait" He said, catching the attention of the other two "I think I heard something."

Sokka, Aang and Katara then turned around and saw 5 elderly men in red robes standing at the entrance.

"We are the Fire Sages." the one at the center said "Guardians of the temple of the Avatar."

Sokka and Katara both looked confused, while Aang looked suspicious, but he none the less stepped forward.

"I am the Avatar." He stated, as he placed himself between his friends and the sages.

"We know." The leading sage says as he and the two others assume fire bending stances and shot of some fireballs at them.

Aang assumed the airbending pose and deflected the fireballs with a spin of his arms. He turned towards Sokka and Katara.

"I'll hold them off. Run!" Aang yelled at them.

Aang then turned back to face the Fire Sages as Sokka and Katara ran down the corridor with a determined look on his face. He bend low and swiped his leg in an arc which send a burst of air directly at the feet of the Fire Sages. All five of the Fire Sages were knocked to the floor, face first which made them grunt upon impact. Aang then ran after Sokka and Katara.

Aang ran at random, but luck was with him and only moments later he ram out into the corridor that Katara and Sokka where running along. They stopped abruptly to avoid running head first into Aang.

"Follow me!" Yelled as he ran in the direction that the two of them were already running in before he turned up.

"Do you know where you're going?" Sokka yelled as he and Katara started running after him.

"Nope!" Aang replied before running around a corner. He didn't get far down the corridor when one of the fire sages came around the corner at the other end. 'Okay, so this leads back to the entrance' Aang thought and stopped, turned and ran back right past Katara and Sokka "Wrong way!" he yelled as he passed.

The two others looked back and saw the fire sage come around the corner and quickly followed after Aang.

"Come back!" The fire sage yelled after them.

Aang, Sokka, Katara and Momo continued running turning around a couple of corners while they tried to lose the pursuing fire sage, however they soon run into a dead end. They then turned around to get ready to fight the pursuing fire sage. Said sage approached them slowly, not in any recognizable fire bending stance.

"I don't want to fight you." The fire sage said calmly "I am a friend."

Aang and his friends didn't lower their fighting stances.

"Firebenders aren't our friends." Sokka stated.

Aang doesn't completely agree with that statement but realized that he would admit that they needed to be more cautious when dealing with someone from the fire nation.

The fire sage moved closer to Aang before dropping to his knees and bowing.

"I know why you're here, Avatar" He said, barely raising his head.

Aang relaxed out of his fighting stance "You do?" He asked in surprise.

"Yes." The fire sage responded while standing up "You wish to speak to Avatar Roku. I can take you to him."

"How?" Aang asked in a wary tone of voice.

The fire sage reached towards the wall to his left and turned the light fixture. Behind the fixture there was small hole in the wall that the fire sage covered with his and before taking a deep breath and shooting fire through the hole. Fire then framed one of the panels in the wall before it slid back and to the right in order to reveal a secret passage. A long staircase carved into the rock of the mountain leads down below.

The fire sage indicates towards the passage and said "This way."

Aang, Katara and Sokka, were still a little distrustful, but before they could question him further they heard the voice of another fire sage that wasn't too far away say"Find them."

The fire sage looked nervously behind himself quickly before turning to Aang, Katara and Sokka.

"Time is running out." He stated "Quickly!"

Aang exchanges a quick glance with Katara before they nod in agreement. All three then ran to the passage with the fire sage following them. Once through the sage touches a lever and closes the door behind them.

As they were walking down the stair the sage began talking "Avatar Roku once called this temple his home. He formed these secret passages out of the magma."

"Did someone in your family know him" Aang asked, hearing a certain familiarity in the sage's voice, but knowing that he couldn't be old enough to know him personally.

"My grandfather knew him." The sage replied "Many generations of Fire Sages guarded this temple long before me. We all have a strong spiritual connection to this place."

"Is that how you knew I was coming?" Aang then asked, changing the subject.

"A few weeks ago, an amazing thing occurred." The sage replied "The statue of Avatar Roku, its eyes…began to glow!"

"That's when we were at the Air Temple." Katara realized "Avatar Roku's eyes were glowing there too!"

"At that moment, we knew you had returned to the world." The sage continued.

"If this is the Avatar's temple, why did the Sages attack me?" Aang asked, wanting to find out what had happened for the sages to abandon their duties.

"Things have changed. In the past, the Sages were loyal only to the Avatar." The sage stated "When Roku died, the Sages eagerly awaited for the next Avatar to return. But he never came."

This caused Aang to stop and lean against the tunnel wall "They were waiting for me." He stated.

"Hey, don't feel bad." Sokka said while putting an arm around his shoulders "You're only a hundred years late."

Aang just glared at Sokka in response to his comment.

"They lost hope the Avatar would ever return. When Fire Lord Sozen began the war, my grandfather and the other Sages were forced to follow him." the sage continued while shaking his head in dismay "I never wanted to serve the Fire Lord. When I learned you were coming, I knew I would have to betray the other Sages."

"Thank you for helping me." Aang said while bowing to the sage.

The sage smiled warmly at Aang in response before turning and going to the nearby stairs

"We'll follow these stairs to the sanctuary." Shyu said before stopping briefly "Before we continue I should probably give you my name. I am Shyu."

Aang and his friends also make their introductions, and then they continue up the stairs.

"Once you're inside, wait for the light to hit Avatar Roku's statue." Shyu said when they were halfway up the stairs "Only then will you be able to speak with him."

Soon thereafter they reached what appeared to be a dead end, however Shyu just pushed at the stone slap blocking their way, lifting it and pushing it to the side. He then looked up to ensure that there wasn't anyone there, before continuing up the stairs followed by Aang and his friends. He then lead them towards the doors to the sanctuary, before suddenly gasping.

"No!" He said, looking at the closed door that had five openings in the form of lion heads..

"Shyu, what's wrong?" Aang asked in response

"The sanctuary doors, they're closed." Shyu responded, while looking at the door in panic

"Can't you just open them with firebending?" Katara asked "Like you opened that other door?"

"No." Shyu answered "Only a fully realized Avatar is powerful enough to open this door alone. Otherwise the Sages must open the doors together with five simultaneous fire blasts."

Sooka started scratching his chin thoughtfully in response to this.

"Five fire blasts, huh?" he asked before his face lights up in a way that indicated that he had an idea "I think I can help you out."

He then pulled out a couple of skin sacks before walking over to a nearby lamp fixture. He put out the flame and took the lamp with him as he sat on the floor. Momo landed on his leg as he started pouring some of the lamp oil into the sack.

"This is a little trick I picked up from my father." He said as he worked "I seal the lamp oil inside an animal skin casing, Shyu lights the oil soaked twine and tada! Fake firebending!"

"You've really outdone yourself this time, Sokka." Katara said, impressed.

"This might actually work." Shyu said thoughtfully.

"Should I use airbending to force the explosion up the pipes?" Aang asked.

"It might help, but I don't think it will make enough of a difference to matter" Sokka stated as he continued working.

"I'll do it then, no use not trying it and finding out that it was needed." Aang answered.

At that point Sokka was done with the sacks. He stood up and walked over to the door and put a bag in each of the lion heads. He then joined Katara and Momo behind the nearest columns for protection from the blasts, while Aang and Shyu both got ready to do their thing.

"The Sages will hear the explosions, so as soon as they go off, you rush in." Said to Aang

"Its almost sunset." Katara said to Aang "Are you ready?"

"Definitely." Aang answered, getting ready to fire of the fire air streams.

At that point Shyu send of a stream of fire that started of the fusses of the five fire bombs before jumping behind a nearby column. Aang meanwhile started sending an airblast at the door the moment the fire reached the small bombs went of causing smoke to fill the chamber. Aang runs to the door and pulls on the handle Aang runs towards the doors and pulls on the handles however the door didn't budge.

"They're still locked." He stated in a disheartened tone of voice

"It didn't work." Shyu said in a similar voice.

Aang stopped moving and closed his eyes.

Meanwhile Sokka approached the door.

"I don't get it." Sokka stated "That blast looked as strong as any firebending I've seen."

"Sokka!" Katara exclaimed "You're a genius!"

"Wait, how is Sokka genius?" Aang, who had just managed to enter sage mode, asked "His plan didn't even work."

"Come on Aang, let her dream." Sokka said, enjoying the compliment, even if undeserved

"You're right. Sokka's plan didn't work…" Katara agreed "but it looks like it did."

Aangs face lit up in realization, before his smile fell. "I think I get the idea, but how can we convince them that I'm in there?" Aang asked.

"Momo could climp through one of the pipes" Katara suggested.

Aang walked up to the door and used his sage mode to find out whether it would be possible for Momo to do so.

"Might work" Aang agreed.

"Would either of you explain this idea of yours before the sages arrive?" Sokka asked in an annoyed tone.

* * *

><p>After a quick explanation Shyu stood and waited for the other sages while Aang and his friends hid.<p>

"Hurry!" he said as they neared the doors "The Avatar has entered the sanctuary."

"How did he get in?" Another sage asked suspiciously.

"I don't know." Shyu answered before pointing at the door "But look at the scorch marks and down there!"

In the crack between the door and the floor a shadow can be seen moving back and forth.

"He's inside." The fire sage said in a panic "Open the doors immediately before he contacts Avatar Roku."

Meanwhile Aang was perched on the dragon's tail wrapped around one of the columns. He slowly inched his way to the floor, ready to run the minute the Fire Sages opened the doors. He then noticed that someone was approaching him, and realized that it was Zuko. Knowing that fighting him would blow his cover he instead decided to use it to his advantage.

The five Fire Sages went into a firebending pose. They shot five fire blasts into the lion's heads on the face of the door. Smoke appeared from the edges of the door as the lock mechanism on the face of the doors starts to move in response to the fireblasts. The doors begin to creak and open slowly,the light from within temporarily blinding the ones standing in front of the door. As the light began to dissipate, the Fire Sages saw a lone Momo inside the sanctuary. Momo sneezed and looked quizzically at the Fire Sages.

"It's the Avatar's lemur! He must have crawled through the pipes!" The fire sage said "We've been tricked!"

Momo suddenly leaped onto the Fire Sage's face, knocking him down. Katara and Sokka jumped from behind two columns and grabbed the two nearest Fire Sages. They pulled the Fire Sages' clothes over their heads. Shyu grabbed the last Fire Sage, meaning that all four Fire Sages where subdued.

"Now, Aang!" Shyu yelled, but Aang didn't come out

"Aang!" Katara yelled after she and Sokka forced the guards onto the ground "Now's your chance!"

Just then Zuko came out holding Aang. Both Aangs arms where held behind his back, yet when he met Katara's eyes he winked, confusing her greatly.

"The Avatar's coming with me!" Zuko stated.

The capture of Aang caused the others to lose focus. The two held down by Katara and Sokka twisted out of their grib, before they returned the favor by twisting their hands behind their back. The one held by Shyu did a back flip and ended up behind Shyu and held him. Momo grabbed the headgear of the sage he was sitting on and took to the air.

Meanwhile Zuko pushed the struggling Aang towards the opening in the floor that lead to Avatar Roku's secret tunnels.

"Close the doors!" He yelled back as the sages as he got to them "Quickly!"

Aang looked over his shoulder at Sokka and Katara., but also made sure the sages did as Zuko told them to. When he and Zuko reached the opening, he ducked down slightly, loosening Zuko's grib, then spun 180 decrees, ducked under Zuko's right arm and sent him down the stairs with and airbending kick. He then ran behind a column out of the view of the sages and created a clone before ran back out, as if running towards Katara who was chained to another column along with Sokka.

"Go" Katara stated, directing him towards the closing door.

He banked left and jumped into the air to avoid a fire blast. He then did several turns in mid-air before using the heads of two of the Fire Sages as stepping stones on his way to the doors. He sailed through the doors just as they closed.

"He made it!" Katara said happily.

The clone outside saw a strange light come from the edges of the door as it closed. He quickly hid looking for a opportunity to help Shyu and his friends.

* * *

><p>Aang crouched on the floor in front of Avatar Roku's statue looking at the of the setting sun that came through the octagonal window at the top of the sanctuary as it moved slowly up the statue.<p>

"The light hits the statue and I talk to Roku." Aang stated as he stood up "So why isn't anything happening?"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile outside Aangs clone watched as Zuko and the four traitor sages (He took them as traitors because they weren't loyal to the Avatar like they were suppose to be) fired five five simultaneous fire blasts at the doors, However, the lock mechanism did not respond.<p>

"Why isn't it working?" Zuko asked in an aggravated tune of voice "It's sealed shut!"

"It must have been the light." The leader of the sages stated "Avatar Roku doesn't want us inside."

* * *

><p>Aang stood in the center of the sanctuary facing Roku's statue. The light from the window had reached Roku's chest.<p>

"Why isn't anything happening?" Aang stated You wanted to talk to me right. Help me gain something beside airbending and my ninja skills, right? Please, Avatar Roku, talk to me!"

At that point the sunlight moved up to cover Roku's face. When the light hit the statue's eyes, they began to glow. The sanctuary was then filled with white smoke. When the smoke clears, he found himself looking at Roku in the flesh, however he also saw his body standing to his left, causing him to look down and realize that he was back in his Naruto body.

"Hey, I'm in control again" Aang stated in surprise.

"Not quite" Roku stated. "Currently you are in spirit form, and thanks to the solstice you are both able to manifest. It is good to see you both, Aang and Naruto."

"But I thought we merged" Naruto said, confused.

"In most cases that is exactly the case, both your personalities, thoughts and speech patterns can manifest itself because of the merger, but in the end, Aang is the Avatar and you are Naruto the ninja, two separate beings. At some point it might become necessary to find a way to separate, since with Naruto in control there is no guaranty that the Avatar cycle will continue. However that is not why I wanted you here."

* * *

><p>Aang's clone was still looking for a opening to save his friends. At that point Shyu had been force to knell in front of Zuko with his hands tied behind hos back and the other four sages standing behind him.<p>

"Why did you help the Avatar?" Zuko asked angrily.

"Because it was once the Sages' duty." Shyu answered "It is still our duty." he corrected.

Suddenly, from behind Prince Zuko, came the sound of one pair of hands clapping. The clone turned and saw Commander Zhao approach followed by Fire Nation troops.

"What a moving and heartfelt performance." Zhao said as he stopped in front of them "I'm certain the Fire Lord will understand when you explain why you betrayed him."

"Commander Zhao…" The leader of the fire sages began while bowing.

Zhao ignored him as he turned to Zuko "And Prince Zuko, it was a noble effort. But your little smoke screen didn't work." He said happily "Two traitors, in one day, the Fire Lord will be pleased."

At the point a fire nation soldier grabbed hold of Zuko, which in turn made Zuko struggle to get free of the grip.

"You're too late, Zhao." Zuko stated "The Avatar's inside and the doors are sealed."

"No matter." Zhao stated arrogantly "Sooner or later, he has to come out."

'Yeah, and at that point I might need to be the distraction' The clone thought as he watched Sokka and Katara exchange worried glances.

* * *

><p>"I have something very important to tell you both." Roku continued "That is why, when Naruto was in the spirit world, I sent my dragon to find him."<p>

"Is it about that vision?" Aang asked before Naruto could "The one with the comet?"

"Yes."

"So what is it about" Naruto asked.

"One hundred years ago, Fire Lord Sozen used that comet to begin the war." Roku explained "He and his firebending army harnessed its incredible power and dealt a deadly first strike against the other nations."

"So the comet made them stronger?" Aang asked

"Yes. Stronger than you could even imagine." Roku confirmed.

"I've been told that learning the past is helpful, but I don't understand why a comet from a hundred years ago is relevant right now" Naruto stated with a frown.e comet have to do with the war now?

"Listen carefully." Roku stated "Sozen's comet will return by the end of the summer. And Fire Lord Ozai will use its power to finish the war once and for all. If he succeeds, even the Avatar won't be able to restore balance to the world. Aang, you must defeat the Fire Lord before the comet arrives."

"I should probably focus on reclaiming my ninja skills and tools instead of mastering the elements then, since I haven't even started on waterbending yet.

"Your ninja skills might not be efficient against the fire lord. " Roku stated. "to give the world the biggest chance of survival you must master the elements by summers end."

"Sounds like a challenge, but I won't give up, Dattaboyo" Naruto stated. "dammit, thought the merger removed that speech pattern." He added.

Meanwhile Aang just looked at him confused. Had he been in control he would have been nervous at the prospect of having to learn it all in such a short amount of time, but Naruto seemed more annoyed at his speech tick than nervous about the task.

* * *

><p>Outside the door Zhao and his troops where waiting for Aang to come out standing in a firebending pose.<p>

"When those doors open, unleash all your firebending power." Zhao stated.

"How's Aang going to make it out of this?" Katara asked as she watched this from the column.

"How're we going to make it out of this?" Sokka asked, feeling that it would be a more relevant question.

* * *

><p>"What happens if he can't do it" Aang asked, since Naruto wasn't likely to ask.<p>

Naruto looked mildly insulted at the question, but choose not to comment.

"He will have the advantage of his ninja skills, at the very least." Roku stated "Had it been you I would have stated that you did it before, but he isn't really a proper part of the chain. Luckily he still will be able to contact me through you, if he should need it. Anyway the solstice is ending" After saying that he closed his eyes, with Aang doing the same. "A great danger awaits you at the temple." He stated after a moment. "I can help you face the threat." as he talked Aangs tattoos started to glow " But only if you are ready."

"We're ready" Naruto and Aang stated at the same time as their eyes lit up indicating that they entered the Avatar state.

* * *

><p>The clone outside watched as a blinding white light came from inside the sanctuary and Smoke billowed out into the entryway from the bottom of the door while the door itself glowed. The clone, at that point, used the distraction to come out of it's hiding spot and got ready to help the others, or divert the attention of the guards if necessary. The light from the door intensified, causing the clone to slow down while the others in the room either looked away or covered their eyes. The door began to open, slowly, while Zhao and the rest of his soldiers stood ready to attack.<p>

"Ready…" Zhao said to his soldier.

At that point the light faded and reveled two large glowing eyes in the dark of the sanctuary. Sokka and Katara struggling against their chains, while on the other side the clone was trying to untie them.

"No! Aang!" Katara yelled because she feared he'd get hurt in the upcoming attack.

"Fire!" Zhao yelled at the other firebenders before they all shot fire blast into the sanctuary.

All the fire blasts stop end up being held at the door and manipulated into a gigantic ball of swirling fire. It slowly began to open and revealed what appears to be Avatar Roku, his eyes glowing.

"Avatar Roku!" Shyu said in surprise.

Meanwhile Roku drew the fire ball back towards himself and shot it out into the room in the form of a wave of flames. Zhao and his soldiers are knocked to the floor. The heat of the blast melted the chains holding Sokka, Katara, Shyu and Zuko. Zuko, now free, ran away, not noticing Aang's clone standing by the column that Katara and Sokka had been tied to. At the same time the flames reached the wall of the temple and blast through the wall. The glowing form of Roku then turned to the fire sages with an angry look in his eyes, causing them to flee.

"Avatar Roku's going to destroy the temple!" Shyu stated "We have to get out of here!"

"Not without Aang!" Katara replied.

Roku raised his arm and swung it down on the floor of the temple. The force of his strike rend the floor. At that point Shyu tried to flee, however at that point Aangs clone appear and grabbed him.

"He won't hurt you or us" the clone stated simply. It knew that 'Roku' was actually his original, and therefore knew he wouldn't hurt his friends.

"Aang" Katara said happily "Let's get out of here"

At that point a wall of magma shot up through the entire temple structure and out of the very top of the temple causing Sokka, Katara and Shyu to seek cover by the column. The clone used the chance to dispel. Everyone else had already left the temple so 'Avatar Roku' lowered his hands. He took a deep breath and pushed his hands down. Behind him the sunlight moved up the face of the statue the eyes stopped glowing as the sun of the solstice set. The smoke created by Roku's pyrotechnics were sucked back towards him, completely shrouding him in it. The smoke then swirled and dissipated, revealing Aang standing in the entryway to the sanctuary with glowing eyes. He then closed his eyes, groaned and sank to the floor. Katara, Sokka and Shyu all ran to his side, with Katara and Sokka each taking and arm to support him as he stood back up.

"We got your back." Sokka stated.

"I know." Aang answered with a smile. "But we better get out of here before it sinks" He added when he felt the temple start to do just that.

They approached the stairs that lead down stairs, however the lava had reached all but the top few steps. One of the columns crashes to the floor behind them, cutting them of. They the ran towards the hole in the temple wall created by Roku's blast, hoping that it would give them a way out. They looked down and saw that the temple was being devoured by the volcano. Aang tries to think of a good way to escape when Katara and Sokka gasp while they looked upwards. Following their line of sight he saw Momo (wearing the fire sages hat) leading Appa towards them at high speed. Sokka, Shyu, Aang and Katara slid down one of the peaks of the temple onto Appa's back and Appa flew away from the temple as it started sinking even further.

Aang, Shyu, Sokka and Katara sat and watched from Appa's back, Aang with his arm resting on a bundle of scrolls. Momo (still wearing the hat) hopped up onto his lap, chittering.

Aang then turned to Shyu "We'll drop you of at a earth village that we recently helped and ask them to hide you" He stated. "I might come back when I need help mastering firebending" He added.

"I am not the right person to teach you, my own fire bending is not that strong or diverse, and I have no experience in teaching" Shyu answered sadly.

"We will deal with that when the time comes" Aang stated simply.

* * *

><p>Poll: Given the overall popularity of Toph in the poll, I've decided to give the following spoiler: She is one of the two I already planned to put in the harem. I have removed Toph from the poll, which should allow those that voted for her to change their vote to someone else (if not tell me so I can try and fix it). Hopefully the same won't happen to the other secret member.<p>

Aang/Naruto: This chapter is full of switches between Naruto and Aang, so I thought I should clear it up encase it wasn't clear in the story: I use the different names based on how they look. If they look like Aang then I call them Aang and if they look like Naruto I call them Naruto. This means that current Aang/Naruto will always be called Aang in the real world, while in the spirit world they would mostly be called Naruto, unless a split happens like it did in this chapter.

Sokka's love life: Some people are beginning to question and make suggestions for who Sokka should be with since Suki is going to be with Aang, and I just have to answer that my plans for him are a secret, and revealing it would spoil future chapters.

Toph: Someone commented that Toph should remind Aang of Hinata, and I mostly agree, though with him having part of Hinata with him I think she will remind him more of Hanabi.

Chakra skills: I won't go into details with what affects these skills will have in the future, I merely want to point out that it will be a while before they become a major part of the story. Aang wants to keep his abilities secret for as long as he can, because it will give the fire nation less time to prepare for them, while Sokka and Katara just don't have the mastery to find good situations in which to use them, along with having the same reasons as Aang. They will come into play, but likely not until they feel that they don't have any other choice.

Rasengan:

Fire rasengan: Rasenenjo:

Name: Rasen? (Want it to say spiraling dragon, but don't know how to write it)

Looks: It looks like the spiraling ball is inside a dragons mouth and once throw the body of a dragon follows it, though if not throw hard enough the by user, the dragon tail will become irantic and so will the movements of the move itself.

When hurled it destroys the air along its path and sucks everything inwards in its trail before the entire path erupts into a huge explosion of flame and the point of impact is basically disintegrated like a direct hit from a Rasenshuriken, just with incredible heat that instantly sublimates everything it hits into a gas. Weakness': If it isn't hurled strongly enough its direction becomes unstable and it can start flying in random directions. It can also be rather fragile so it can explode before reaching it's target.

Water rasengan:

Name: Rasenmaki or Rasenuzu (Suppose to be spiraling whirlpool)

Looks: looks similar to the rasenshuriken, only instead of four blades it had one continues line that goes in a circle around the center, similar to the symbol of Uzushiogakure.

When used it absorbs any water nearby, including from the user, once it hit something it crushes whatever is utterly, and then explodes like the Nidaime or Kisame just fired off their strongest water technique, releasing all the water it collected, including the water chakra used to create it. This would be the sort of thing which alters the entire terrain, adding like five feet of standing water until it drains away. It could wash away a whole army in a single blow. If used underwater or hurled into water, it'd hit, drill straight into the ocean or pond or lake or whatever, and then all the water in a huge area around it would start swirling and collapsing inward, creating a huge whirlpool almost instantly. Instant fleet-killer. Drag in a dozen ships in an area half a mile across and grind them into scrap. Weakness': If held to long it absorbs the liquid in the users body, making them useless, if not killing them outright. Changing the terrain might not be helpful for ones allies, making it a double edged sword, and the same is true for the whirlpool version

Earth rasengan:

Name: Rasenterra? Rasendo? Raseniwa?:

Looks: I'm still blank, maybe it'll just be a rocky looking surface that constantly vibrates.

Unlike the static form that most other rasengans have, this one is unstable and constantly vibrating at an incredible pace. Anything it touches has to follow it vibrations or it will grind them to dust. This means that if used on a person it turns their bones to dust and if used on the ground it creates an earthquake. It could potentially damage the person using it and if used on the ground it could potentially damage the tectonic plates, messing up the very makeup of a planet.


	9. The Waterbending Scroll

Disclamer: Don't own Naruto or Avatar: The last Airbender.

AN: Sorry it's a bit late, had other things to do.

* * *

><p>Aang was getting restless as he, Sokka and Katara flew through the skies. He could do most of his old ninja and airbending skill, but knew he needed to learn the other bending arts, and of course also start working some more with his doujutsu. He stood up and started pacing. After a little while Sokka, who was holding on to Appa's reins turned his head (where he balanced a leaf on his forehead) slightly towards Aang.<p>

"Would you sit down? If we hit a bump you'll go flying off!" He said in an annoyed tone of voice "What's bugging you anyway?"

"I'm just frustrated that I can't start my training yet." Aang stated "I'm supposed to master all four elements before that comet arrives."

"Well, let's see, you've pretty much mastered airbending and that only took you 112 years…" Sokka stated jokingly "I'm sure you can master three more elements by next summer."

"Not helping" Aang stated before he went on "I haven't even started waterbending and we're still weeks away from the North Pole!"

Aang put his head in his hands in frustration, before lowering them again. Once his hands hang by his side Katara grabbed them and pulled him down so that he was sitting across from her before she took his hands in hers.

"Calm down. It's going to be okay." She said in a calming voice "If you want, I can try and teach you some of the stuff I know."

"You'd do that?" Aang asked.

Katara nodded her head in response and smiled at him. She and Aang then crawled over to the edge of the saddle to look down.

"We'll need to find a good source of water first." She stated.

"Maybe we can find a puddle for you to splash in." Sokka said Jokingly.

* * *

><p>They soon find a lake that lies in a small canyon at the bottom of a waterfall. Both Katara and Aang are excited at finding such a prime waterbending spot, while Sokka looks slightly sour.<p>

"Nice puddle." He stated.

At point Appa swooped in overhead grunting loudly as dropped himself into the water. Momo, who was sitting on a rock nearby gets splashed by the wave that the drop created. Appa rolled over onto its back in the water and relaxed. Aang who had removed everything but his underwear, was about to join the fun.

"Yehhh! Don't start without me, boy!" He yelled.

That proclamation didn't please Katara who immediately said "Remember the reason we're here."

Aang stopped from jumping in and looked back at her. "Oh right, time to practice waterbending." He said before putting his hands into the ram sign and created a clone who took a nearby branch of the ground. At Katara's look he stated "Appa needs to get his toes cleaned of gunk, so might as well do it now" He stated before he pulled his pants back up.

"So what am I supposed to do?" Sokka asked.

"Practice leaf balancing or you can try tree walking." Aang stated.

"I've gotten a hang of the leaf one, so show me this tree walking exercise." Sokka stated.

Aang just created another clone to go with Sokka and teach him.

* * *

><p>Shortly thereafter Katara and Aang stood on the river bank and Katara began to explain while demonstrating at the same time.<p>

"This is a pretty basic move, but it still took me months to perfect, so don't be frustrated if you don't get it right away." She stated as she momentarily stopped her moments "Just push and pull the water like this…" She than said as she once more started swaying back and forth, while moving her hands in a flowing motion, which in turn made the water follow her moments "The key is getting the wrist movement right."

Aang got up and started imitating her movements.

"Like this?" He asked.

"That's almost right, if you keep practicing, I'm sure eventually –" Katara began before noticing that Aang was already moving the water.

"Hey, I'm bending it already!" Aang stated before she could comment. She also noticed that the wave he was creating was bigger than her own.

"Wow, I can't believe you got that so quickly." Katara stated looking both surprised and a little unhappy "It took me two months to learn that move."

"Well, you had to figure it out on your own." Aang stated simply "I'm lucky enough to have a great teacher."

"Thanks." Katara said with a slight blush.

"So, what's next." Aang asked.

"This is a more difficult move." Katara said as she got into a pose for her next bending move "I call it 'streaming the water.'"

Katara moved her hands upward, pulling out a small amount of water that looked a little like a snake.

She then led it over to herself slowly and moved it around slightly while saying "It's harder than it looks so don't be disappointed if…" She was cut of when she looked at Aang who had just pulled out some water as well.

He started moving it in small circles before moving it in a rough version of the leaf villages sign, though Katara didn't recognize it as such. Katara at that point looked sour as she dropped her water stream. Aang moved his stream into the whirlpool symbol before leading it iback nto the water.

"Nice work, though the over-the-head flare was unnecessary." Katara stated sourly.

"Sorry." Aang said sincerely, before adding excitedly "Well, don't stop now, keep'em coming!"

"Well, I kinda know this one other move, but it's pretty hard. I haven't even totally figured it out yet." Katara stated as she got into another pose "The idea is to create a big, powerful wave…"

Katara concentrated as she lifted her hands, pulling up a blob of water, but it falls back upon itself when Katara's concentration lapsed. Aang copied her pose.

"So, like this?" he asked as he lifted his hands the same way she did.

As he did a huge wall of water shot up into the air. The clone who was cleaning Appa turned around when it got covered by the shadow that the water created. It then ran towards the shore (Where Sokka was also training) to avoid the water, however when it saw their supplies close by it realized that they might be picked up by the water and changed its course towards it. By the time it reached supplies the water had also reached it so all the clone could do was prevent some of it from washing away, but it still ended up being soaked.

"Looks like I got the hang of that move!" Aang stated, unaware of the trouble his wave had caused. "Should we train ninja skills for a bit" He added, as he didn't want to be the only one to get training done.

"Sound like a good idea "Katara said, a little cross at the speed he mastered those skills.

"Before that we should probably deal with the fact that you just practiced some of our supplies down the river and soaked the rest!" Sokka said as he walked up to them with Aang's clone following him. They where both carrying what was left of their supplies.

"Uhhh… sorry." Aang said with a crocked smile "I'm sure we can find somewhere to replace all this stuff."

"Ugh, it was hard enough when you were just an airbender." Sokka stated as he and the clone put down the supplies and started assessing how much of it was still useable and what needed to be replaced.

* * *

><p>It didn't take long for them to find a nearby port village. It was filled with all kinds of merchants, both the normal and shady type. Sokka started looking around and whenever he found some good deals he would go to Aang and get the money he needed. Meanwhile Aang and Katara where looking around the different stands to see what interesting things they could find. While Katara was preoccupied looking at something Aang caught sight of a whistle that was formed like a byson and after a very brief haggle got it for one copper piece.<p>

Soon thereafter Katara and Aang where waiting outside the last shop on Sokka's supply gathering trip.

He stepped out of the shop and said "We've got exactly 20 copper pieces left from the money that King Bumi gave us. Let's spend it wisely.

"Uhh, make that 19 copper pieces, Sokka." Aang cut in "I couldn't say no to this whistle!"

Aang then held out the white whistle that he bought earlier before drawing a deep breath and blowing into it. Sokka put his fingers in his ears to stop the sound he believed was coming, however no recognizable sound comes out if it, except for the sound of rushing air.

"It doesn't even work." Sokka stated as he removed the fingers from his ears. Momo chitters into Aang's ear and got him to stop blowing into the whistle "See, even Momo thinks it's a piece of junk."

Aang was about to comment that he might just be annoyed by a sound they couldn't hear but was stopped.

"No offense, Aang," Katara said slowly "but I'll hold the money from now on."

Knowing that even if he was right, he did waste money on something that might not have any practical use he just looked guilty and handed Katara the money.

They than continued looking through the stalls for anything else they could use, that wasn't as high priority as the things Sokka bought. Soon they reached they reached the peer and as they where walking down it they heard:

"Earth Nation! Fire Nation! Water Nation!" A seaman wearing green yelled "So long as bargains are your inclination, you're welcome here! Don't be shy, come one by!"

As they walked by the ship the sailor ran right up to them, but both Katara and Sokka ignored him complete. However Aang kept his attention on the man in case he attacked.

"Oh! You there! " the guy yelled "I can see by your clothing that you're world traveling types. Perhaps I can interest you in some exotic curios?"

"What are curios?" Aang asked with a slight frown.

This question caused the sailor to gain confused look "I'm not entirely sure, but we got'em!" He stated after a short pause.

The sailor then placed his right arm around Aangs shoulders and bustled him onto to the ship, with Katara and Sokka following along.

They arrived inside the hold of the ship where there was a lot of different wares stacked all over the place. The three started looking around and Katara got momentarily mesmerized by a stone monkey which was richly jeweled with large, blood red rubies.

"I've never seen such a fine specimen of lemur." A voice suddenly said, drawing their attention to a man that had just entered the room. He was wearing maroon clothing and a matching bicorne hat and had a iguana parrot on his shoulder. "That beast would fetch me a hefty sum, if you'd be interested in bartering."

The iguana parrot screamed several times when the man finished speaking. Momo, from his place on Aang shoulder responded with growls of its own.

"Momo's not for sale." Aang said in a defensive tone of voice as he took Momo into his arms.

By that time Katara had walked over to a scroll rack. One of the scrolls on the rack had caught her attention because it had a water symbol in it's end. She took it from the rack and opened it which allowed her to see that it contain instruction on how to perform various waterbending moves. Her eyes light up and she draws an intake of breath.

"Look at this, Aang!" She said excitedly causing Aang to come over to her "It's a waterbending scroll. Check out these crazy moves!"

"Where did you get a waterbending scroll?" Aang asked the captain, slightly suspicious.

The captain walked over to Katara and slammed his hand down on the open scroll that Katara had placed on the table. He picked it up and took a step back, placing himself between Aang and Katara.

He then started rolling it up as he said "Let's just say I got it up north at a most reasonable price. Free!" While he said that he had a creepy smile on his face.

He then placed the scroll back on the rack, with Katara eying it hungrily. Sokka, who was looking at some merchandise nearby, turned around in response to what the captain said.

"Waaait a minute…" He said with a thoughtful look on his face. "sea-loving traders…with suspiciously acquired merchandise...and pet reptile birds…You guys are pirates!"

The green-wearing pirate put his arm around Sokka's shoulders and smiled "We prefer to think of ourselves as high risk traders." He said with a smile.

Katara looked down at the poach which held the few copper pieces they had left "So, how much for the, uh, 'traded' scroll?" She asked carefully.

"I've already got a buyer, a nobleman in the Earth Kingdom." The captain answered simply "Unless, of course, you kids have 200 gold pieces on ya right now?" He added slyly.

Aand and Katara turned away and leaned towards each other.

"I know how to deal with these guys, Katara, pirates love to haggle." Aang said while holding out his hand. Katara looked a little doubtful but still handed him the poach with the copper coins. "Watch and learn." Aang said before turning back to the pirate captain. "What say to the price of… two copper pieces!" He said while fishing two copper pieces out of the poach.

The pirate captain gave a short laugh before stating. "The price is 200 gold pieces. I don't haggle on items this rare."

'Not going to work then, need to figure out how long the scroll will be here then' Aang thought, before asking. "Could you give us some time to gather the neccesary amount?"

"The nobleman's servant should be here by tomorrow to check the validity of the merchandise" The captain stated simply.

"Aang, can we get out of here, I feel like we're getting weird looks." Katara said as she returned to Aang side.

"Aye, we be castin' off now!" Aang said to the captain, having gotten the information they needed.

Aang grabbed his staff and followed Katara out, grabbing Sokka along the way.

"What was that all about, Katara." Aang asked as they left the ship.

"Yeh, I was just starting to browse through their boomerang collection." Sokka added.

"I'll just feel a lot better once we get away from here." Katara stated while hugging herself protectively.

As they were walking away they suddenly heard someone yell "Hey you, get back here!"

They turned and saw the green-wearing pirate standing on the deck of the ship.

"What do they want now" Aang stated "I doubt they suddenly want to haggle."

Suddenly a sudden pirates well armed and obviously angry start exiting the ship to come after Aang, Katara and Sokka,. The pirates crowd in front of them, yelling things like, "There they are!", "Get'em!" and "Nobody's goin' nowhere!"

"I…I don't think these pirates are here to trade with us!" Katara stated nerviously.

Aang, Sokka and Katara turned around and start running away from the pirates.

"Get back here!" one of the pirates yelled as the pirates all started to pursue them.

Aang and his friend ran away from the pier via an alley, with some of the pirates following right behind them.

"Whoa" Sokka yelled as they ran around another corner.

Meanwhile Katara saw a bowl of water on a nearby stall and bend the water onto the ground where she turned it to ice, which caused the lead pirate to slip and hit the ground, while the rest of them jumped over the ice and continued followed the group.

They then came across the cabbage dealer they had meet in Omashu who was pushing a wagon with cabbages. Sokka and Katara both ran around it while Aang jump through the opening between the the top and bottom part. After landing on the other side Aang quickly turned and used airbending to send the wagon at their pursuers. He also secretly enjoyed the fact that he got back at the guy that wanted their heads cut of for something as trivial as destroying cabbages.

"My cabbages!" Aang heard the guy yelling from behind him.

They turned another corner, however as they where running down the alley another group of the pirates, lead by the guy in green, came around a corner ahead of them, cutting them of. They quickly turned around and started running back the way they came with the pirates in pursuit.

"I hope that lemur of yours has nine lives!" one of the pirates yelled after them.

They turned another corner, however this turned out to be a bad choice as it was a dead end. While Aang knew he could jump it, he wasn't sure he could take the others with him. Since he was ahead of them he also didn't have any chance to grab them and keep running. Behind them the green-wearing pirate and his mates were blocking the entrance (and exit) to the alley.

"Now," The pirate said as he swung around his two blades "who gets to take the steel of my blade first?"

"No thanks!" Aang responded before sending a gust of wind at the pirates which kicked up the dirt causing them to become disoriented. Aang used the confusion to run forward, with Katara and Sokka behind him, and unfolding his staff as he ran. "Hold on tight" He yelled at the other two as he made a slight jump and started flying rather than running.

The other two quickly latch onto to Aang's legs.

"Aang, I thought we were running away from the pirates!" Katara said as they where flying straight towards the pirates.

"Just hang on!" Aang responded.

They had a little trouble gaining altitude at first, but Katara and Sokka used the heads of the pirates as spring boards to get into the air. After that Aang was able to use airbending to help them up even further, leaving the pirates behind.

* * *

><p>They soon arribed back at the waterfall where they left Appa, though he wasn't there at that time.<p>

"I used to kinda look up to pirates, but those guys are terrible."Aang said while folding up his glider and sitting down by a rock.

"I know," Katara said with a smile "that's why I took – this!" She continued, holding up the waterbending scroll

Aang got up with an unhappy look on his face.

"No way." He said in an annoyed tone.

"Isn't it great?" Katara asked happily, oblivious to Aangs tone.

"No wonder they were trying to hack us up." Sokka stated as he walked up to them "You stole their waterbending scroll."

"I prefer to think of it as 'high-risk trading.'" Katara stated in a self-satisfied tone of voice.

"Good one, Katara." Aang stated, "but it doesn't mean that you did the right thing.

"Where do you think they got it?" Katara stated "They stole it from a waterbender."

"It doesn't matter." Sokka responded "You put all of our lives in danger just so you could learn some stupid, fancy splashes!"

"These are real waterbending forms." Katara defended "You know how crucial it is for Aang to learn waterbending."

"And we still had time to find a better opportunity to take it" Aang stated before Sokka could say anything. "Why do you think I asked when the buyer was coming to get it? I agree that the scroll didn't belong to them, but taking it like that wasn't a smart move, unless you wanted to fight them." At that point Katara looked slightly ashamed so Aang stopped the lecture. "Well, what's done is done. We have it. We might as well learn from it."

* * *

><p>Soon they found a stump that they could use as a table and placed the scroll upon it. Sokka was setting on a stone nearby.<p>

Katara pointed at one of the pictures and said "I just want to try this one move first and then it's all yours."

Aang took the scroll and held it up so that Katara could see it. Katara backed away before she leaned backward, assuming the waterbending stance prescribed in the scroll.

"'The single water whip'…" Katara stated as she studied the drawings on the scroll "looks doable."

She raised a stream of water and whipped it around, but it hit her in the forehead, leaving a bruise. Sokka just laughed at his sisters trouble with the move.

"What's so funny?" Katara asked annoyed.

"I'm sorry, but you deserve that." Sokka stated before turning to Aang. "You've been duped. She's only interested in teaching herself."

Aang just shrugged, knowing that he would get his chance to learn when Katara trained ninja skills.

"Aang will get his turn once I figure out the water whip!" Katara stated without noticing Aang gesture.

She then tried to to do the move again, but the whip behaved erratically and unintentionally hit Momo butt, who screams at her in protest.

"Why can't I get this stupid move!" Katara yelled angrily.

"You'll get it." Aang stated as he walked to the river. Since Katara didn't need him to hold the scroll he might as well try the move alongside her.

Katara just looked displeased at this pronouncement, and seeing Aang move towards the river didn't help since she feared he would just show him up again.u

"You just gotta shift your weight through the stances…" He stated as he gracefully manipulated the whip for a few seconds and whips it forward. "There. See, the key to bending is…" he continued as he turned around only to come face to face with an angry Katara.

"Will you PLEASE shut your air hole!" She yelled, shaking her firsts at him "Believe it or not, your infinite wisdom gets a little old sometimes. Why don't we just throw the scroll away since you're so naturally gifted!" She skimmed over at Sokka who stood nearby looking unimpressed by her rant "What?" she yelled at him as she turned back to Aang.

Aang just looked on with a sad look in his eyes.

"Omigosh, Aang, I'm so sorry. I don't know what came over me." Katara said with guilt in her voice "But, you know what, it won't happen again." She rolled up the scroll and handed it to Aang. "Here, this is yours. I don't want to have anything to do with it anymore."

"I don't have a problem with you wanting to train and get stronger" Aang stated "But in your current state of mind you won't be able to learn much anyway. Do the leaf balancing or tree climbing exercise for a bit and when you've calmed we'll go up the river and I'll teach you some bending basics that might help you. We can train some of the moves together tomorrow morning."

"Okay Aang" Katara said as she found a leaf and started the exercise with Aang sitting beside her to help if needed.

* * *

><p>After she had relaxed a bit with the exercise a bit Aang started teaching her some of the basics of bending. They only managed to do it a short amount of time before they needed to return to Sokka to set up camp.<p>

After the boys went to sleep however Katara got back up and took out the scroll, wanting to train so that she wouldn't be shown up again. She backed guiltily away from the camp, turning around only to be confronted by Momo's luminescent green eyes. He was perched on a tree trunk that allowed him to be at the same height as she was, which allowed him to chitter accusingly in her face.

"Shh!" She told him "Momo, go back to sleep." she continued as she walked by him. When Momo began to chitter again she just said "shh" again, which caused him to give it up.

* * *

><p>"Shoot!" Katara said in an annoyed voice. "I almost had it" She tried bending the whip again but again it backlashed and hit herself "Aww" She exclamed loudly. She then took a deep breath to calm down. "Okay, Katara, shift your weight through the stances…" She stated.<p>

When she had gotten halfway through the stances, however, she heard the noise of grinding metal. She ran over to a row of bushes on her left and parted them to reveal a fire nation cutter craft now beached on the river bank. She turned to run back and warn the others, but found her way blocked by a pirate who had managed to get right behind her.

"No, let go of me!" Katara yelled as the guy grabbed her arms.

She bended a water whip around and smacked the pirate in the face causing him to let her of go, but when she ran from him she instead ran straight into Zuko's arms.

"I'll save you from the pirates." Zuko stated.

He then handed her to a couple of his soldiers that had just joined him and had them tie her to a tree. Soon thereafter all of the pirates and firenation soldiers had gathered in front of the tree.

"Tell me where he is and I won't hurt you or your brother." Zuko stated honestly.

"Go jump in the river!" Katara responded angrily.

"Try to understand, I need to capture him to restore something I've lost. My honor." Zuko stated "Perhaps in exchange I can restore something you've lost."

At that point Zuko was behind Katara and held the necklace she lost on the prison platform up in front of her throat, causing Katara to gain a shocked look.

"My mother's necklace!" She said, her voice also displaying the shock she felt. At that point Zuko removed the necklace again as he walked back in front of her. "How did you get that?

"I didn't steal it, if that's what you're wondering." Zuko answered simply "Tell me where he is."

"No!" Katara responded stubbornly.

"Enough of this necklace garbage." The pirate captain stated as he walked forward "You promised the scroll!"

"I wonder how much money this is worth?" Zuka said as he pulled out the scroll an made a fire underneath it causing the pirates to either gasp or cry out a 'no!'. "A lot, apparently. Now you help me find what I want, you'll get this back and everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the boy and meet back here."

"Fine." The pirate captain agreed sullenly as he turned and walked away.

* * *

><p>Back at the campsite a short time later Sokka had just rolled over slightly as he started waking up. He noticed that Katara's sleeping bag was empty startling him fully awake.<p>

"Huh? Where did she go?" Sokka said in a confused tone of voice as he crawled to Aangs back (which was laying at Sokka's sleeping spot) and started searching it. "I don't believe it." He states after a moment.

"What's wrong." Aang asked after a quick yawn,

"She took the scroll! She's obsessed with that thing." Sokka stated as he indicated towards the contents of the back, showing that the scroll wasn't there. "It's just a matter of time before she gets us all in deep –" He was cut of when a chain wrapped around his extended arms and pulled him forward onto the ground.

He looked up to see a pirate in blue getting ready to attack him again and quickly jumped to the side to avoid it. His roll came to a stop right next to his boomerang that he picked up before storming forward, using chakra to give him a speed boost. This boost took both pirates he was facing by surprise and allowed him to hit the one who was wearing green pant and no shirt at all. He hit him right in the stomach causing him to bend over to catch his breath, however before Sokka could take him out the other pirate swung his chain at Sokka, forcing him to retreat.

Meanwhile Aang was facing a huge beefy pirate hefting two crossbows with a net tied between them. The pirate aimed and fired at Aang, but he used chakra and airbending to propel himself above the net. This obviously took the pirate by surprise and made him just stare at Aang instead of reloading (he had expected him to try and jump to the sides, not over). Aang used the pirates confusion to land and grab his staff before running towards him. As he got closer the pirate snapped out of his stupor and tried to hit Aang with his crossbows (not really a good weapon, but he didn't have time to pull his sword). Aang just slid below his blows and through his legs before using airbending to stand back up, then jumped slightly to the right before turning and blasting the pirate straight into a tree with a powerful wind blow knocking him out.

He then turned to Sokka to see him try to fight of two other pirates, though he was only succeeding in dodging their attacks. Aang ran a couple of steps, however when he saw that the blue pirate once more was going to attack with his chain he sent a blast of air at it which changed the trajectory so that it hit the other pirate instead of Sokka.

"Ow" The pirate said as the end of the chain hit him in the eye "Why'd you do that"

"Aint something I did on purpose" The other stated annoyed at the misfire.

Aang used the argument to join up with Sokka.

"I'll take the one with the chain, you take the other one out" Aang stated as he ran past him and closed in on the one with the chain.

The pirate tried to use the chain to capture Aangs legs, but Aang blocked it with his staff while he continued running. Once in front of the pirate he swung his staff and used airbending to make the chain let go and start swinging around the pirate, effectively tying him in his own chain. Before the pirate could come up with a way to loosen the chain Aang had managed to properly tie it around him and stuffed his mouth with a piece of cloth he was carrying just in case. He threw the end of the chain over a branch, lifted the pirate into the air and tied it to the trunk of the tree before turning to Sokka.

Sokka wasn't nearly as effective as Aang, but thanks to the chakra that he used to augment his speed he was able to fight the pirate at an equal level. The pirate had slightly more skill then Sokka, but he couldn't keep up with the speed. Sokka had started out by trying a frontal assault again, but the pirate had seen it coming and blocked it with one of his nunchucks, before countering with the other by trying to hit Sokka in the head. Sokka managed to jump back in time to avoid it and then quickly ran to the left in a circle, hoping to flank the pirate. Once he reached the side of the pirate he changed direction and tried attacking again, his speed almost allowing him to succeed, but the pirate managed to roll forward in time, which left Sokka stumbling forward. The pirate took advantage of this and made a sweeping kick at Sokka legs, knocking him to the ground, but before the pirate could follow it up Aang turned up and used an air blast to send him into a tree.

After making sure that the pirate was knocked out he put him together with the burly pirate from earlier and used the net to tie them together.

Meanwhile Sokka had gotten back and walked over to the chain pirate and looked at him thoughtfully. Aang joined him once done with the pirates.

"We better find Katara" Aang stated "They may already have her."

"If they have her and the scroll, why bother coming after us" Sokka said thoughtfully "Could you do that bison transformation thing, just to make sure?"

"Okay" Aang stated before sitting down and starting to gather nature chakra. Soon the transformation took place, and merely a second later Aang jumped to his feet "Firebenders" He stated, confusing Sokka "Fire benders have Katara, though there are some there that I think are pirates, we've got to save her."

Before Aang could run of Sokka grabbed his arm "So right now Zuko has the pirate's doing his bedding." He stated mostly to himself "He probably has the scroll and has them hunting you to get it back. He hasn't told them who you are, or the pirate's would have turned on him. I think I've got a plan to save Katara."

* * *

><p>Shortly thereafter Aang and Sokka found themselves bound and surrounded by pirates, standing on the riverbank not to far from Zuko and his men. Sligtly to the side of Zuko Katara was bound to a tree with Iroh standing guard.<p>

Cut to a view of the pirate ship beached on the river bank, the pirates, Zuko and his men lined up facing each other. Katara is still bound to the tree, Iroh standing next to her. The pirates have Sokka and Aang tied up, Zuko holds the scroll.)

"Nice work." Zuko stated as he held up the scroll.

"Aang, this is all my fault." Katara stated sadly.

"No, Katara it isn't." Aang stated, because he couldn't think of anything else to say without giving away the plan and because he didn't really think it was her fault alone.

"Yeh, it kind of is." Iroh stated, negating the effect of Aang's words.

"Give me the boy." Zuko stated fiercely before the conversation could continue.

"You give us the scroll." The pirate captain countered.

"You're really gonna hand over the Avatar for a stupid piece of parchment!" Sokka asked.

"Don't listen to him!" Zuko stated while pointing at Sokka "He's trying to turn us against each other."

The pirate captain looked appraisingly at Aang "Your friend is the Avatar?" He asked Sokka.

"Sure is," Sokka stated as he went to the other side of the captain moving him closer to Aang "and I'll bet he'll fetch a lot more on the black market then that fancy scroll."

"Shut your mouth, you water tribe peasant!" Zuko stated angrily.

"Yeh, Sokka, you really should shut your mouth…" Aang stated in false concern, since him confirming the information would seem suspicious.

"I'm just sayin', it's bad business sense." Sokka stated as he took a small step back which placed him amongst the pirates "Just imagine how much the Fire Lord would pay for the Avatar. You guys would be set for life!"

"Keep the scroll!" The pirate captain stated while pointing at Zuko "We can buy a hundred with the reward we will get for the kid."

The pirates began to lead Aang and Sokka away from Zuko and his fire benders.

"You'll regret breaking a deal with me!" Zuko stated before he and some of his guards unleashed a torrent of flame, which bathed the ground underneath the pirates causing them to jump out the way.

The pirate in green quickly runs forward toward the fire benders throwing smoke pellets while dodging the fire blasts send at him before jumping into the smokescreen that the pellets created. Meanwhile fire nation soldiers ran out of the smokescreen towards the still bound Aang and Sokka. As the got near four pirates jump in front of them defend their captives. They drop smoke pellets and the battlefield instantly becomes impossible overview. At that point two of the pirates transform revealing them to be Aang's clones and they quickly freed Aang and Sokka from their bounds before dispelling.

In the meantime Momo was crawling down the three that Katara was bound to and quickly chews her ropes until they break.

"Thanks, Momo." Katara stated with a smile "I owe you a bushel of apples." She went on before she and Momo split up.

At that Point Aang and Sokka had managed to leave the smoke cloud together. They hadn't had any big trouble doing this because their hands were untied from the beginning and the number of fighters where reduced because of the pirates they had taken out beforehand. They split up, Sokka running to the boat to see if he could free it while Aang went to seach for both Katara and the water bending scroll, since he didn't want it in the hands of fire benders or pirates.

When he arrived at the place where Zuko and the pirate captain was fighting he saw his clone (still looking like one of the pirates) getting ready to use a chain to try and get the scroll from Zuko's belt. Knowing that using chains had never been his specialty he quickly got ready to airbend to make the chain hit it's target. He managed to time an airblast that pushed the chain to spin around the scroll and the clone tried to pull it free but didn't despite leaving Zuko's belt it was clear that it wouldn't get anywhere near the clone. Luckily Momo came to the rescue and grabbed the scroll before it could fall to the ground.

As Momo flew away it suddenly found itself pursued by the Pirate Captain's green parrot, but an airblast from Aang threw the bird of course and allowed Momo to fly over to him.

The two of them then started running back along the beach to where Katara and Sokka were trying the pirate ship of the beach and into the water.

"Katara! It's good to see that your unharmed" Aang yelled as he got closer.

"Help me get this boat back in the water so we can get out of here!" Katara said, to focused on getting away to respond to his statement.

All three began trying to push on the boat, but nothing happened which caused them to stop and look up at the prow.

"We need a team of rhinos to budge this ship." Sokka stated.

"A team of rhinos…" Aang agreed "or two waterbenders." He added while smiling at Katara

Katara looked at Aang and smiled.

Aang and Katara then got into water bending stances and started pulling the river back and forth up the beach, slowly raising the water level around the prow until it reached the point where the ship floated with the water into the river.

"Everybody in!" Katara stated and the three of them (along with Momo) jumped unto the boat.

* * *

><p>While the fighting had been going on another group of Aangs clones had managed to drop the pirates that Sokka and Naruto had defeated earlier into the smokescreen so that it looked like they had been knocked out in the fight. Their fellow pirates had woken them up and lead them onto the firebenders small ship in order to follow Aang, but their confusion with what was going on slowed them down slightly, though unfortunately not enough to give Aang and his friends any meaningful lead.<p>

* * *

><p>"Sokka!" Aang yelled soon after when he noticed that the pirates gaining on them "Can't you make it go any faster?"<p>

"I don't know how." Sokka yelled back from his position at the wheel of the ship "This thing wasn't made by the water tribe."

Meanwhile Aang watches as the pirates quickly pull up beside pirates began jumping onto the ship.

He looks down onto the deck as two of the pirates advance on Katara, and quickly waterbends a wave onto in an attempt to wash them overboard, though only succeeding with one of them.

Katara quickly looks down at the puddle Aangs attack left behind and used it to form a water whip to knock the other one overboard. She then smiled up at Aang.

"Hey, you did the water whip!" Aang congratulated.

"I couldn't have done it without your help!" Katara stated while still smiling.

"Will you two quit congratulating each other and help me out!" Sokka yelled as he jumped onto the helm to avoid an attack by a beefy pirate, before jumping down to the deck below to avoid the sales pirate. Said action also helped him avoid coliding with Momo who was once more pursuit by the Captain's parrot. Aang watched as Momo trapped the parrot by wrapping him in the pirate vessel's black flag.

Meanwhile the two pirates quickly close in on Sokka, however Aang jumps down in front of him and send an airblast at the Pirate Salesmen throwing him at the guard rail. Katara used a water whip from her vantage point to knock down the beefy pirate before he could attack either Aang or Sokka. Aang turns to the beefy pirate and lifts him into the air and spins him around using a whirlwind of air for a few seconds before ejecting him high into the air and over the side of the boat..

"Aang, look!" Katara yelled while looking and pointing ahead of the ship.

Aang and Sokka quickly followed her directions and saw that they where heading towards a waterfall

"Oh, no!" Aang stated before noticing a presence behind him and turning around.

Once turned he came face to face with the salesman who was drawing his blade, however knowing that fighting him right now wasn't really a priority he instead pulled out his bison whistle and blew into it with all his might.

The salesman who had hesitated when the whistle was pulled out started raising his sword to attack Aang but he was promptly round-kicked overboard by Sokka.

"Have you lost your mind!" Sokka asked while tapping the side of his head "This is no time for flute practice!"

Aang didn't really listen, instead running to join Katara at the front of the ship. The two of them watch as they approach the waterfall.

"We can stop the boat!" She said as she motioned him towards the fordeck "Aang, together, push and pull the water!"

The two of them quickly started making pushing and pulling motions, causing the boat to turn and slow down it's approach towards the waterfall

"It's working!" Katara stated "It's slowing down!" A moment later the ship had it's side to the waterfall and had stopped moving towards it. "We're doing it!"

"But we have another problem!" Sokka stated pointing at the other ship that was heading straight for them.

The cutter rammed the pirate ship right in center causing the ship to slowly capsize, which caused Aang and his friend to lose their balance. This in turn stopped Aang and Katara from continuing their bending which made both ships rapidly approach the waterfall. The kids where thrown overboard down the fall though the to ships where close behind them. Before the kids have fallen to far however Appa swooped in and made them land on his back before speeding away from the waterfall to avoid the falling ships.

Once away from the fall Aang and his friends got themselves better situated on Appa's back, Momo landing on Sokka's shoulder.

"I knew a bison whistle would come in handy." Aang stated "Thanks, Appa."

"Yeh, we owe ya one." Sokka stated earning a grunt from Appa.

"I told you this wasn't a waste of money, dattabayo" Aang said with a self-satisfied smile, before clasping his hands over his mouth.

"Dattabayo?" Sokka asked confused "What's that suppose to mean?"

"It's a speech tick, mostly used to put extra meaning into a sentence" Aang said "Thought it was gone with the merger, but it seems to have returned, though it isn't as bad as it used to be"

Katara, who had been quiet for a while, used the pause in the conversation to speak. "That aside, Aang, I still owe you an apology." She said while kneeling and looking down at the saddle. "You were just so good at waterbending without really trying. I got so competitive that I put us all in danger. I'm sorry."

"That's okay, Katara." Aang stated.

"Besides, who needs that stupid scroll anyway." Katara stated.

"Actually" Aang stated as he fished the scroll out of his clothing "I took this of Zuko before we left" Momo chatter interrupted him "With a lot of help from Momo" He amended "So while we might not need it, we still have it."

"That's great" Katara yelled as she embraced him happily.

* * *

><p>Slow update:<p>

I'm following The Legend of Korra to get insparation for moves or character (I know that the characters in the The Legend of Korra can't be directly used, but I might fit in ancestors who are similar to them)

Poll:

Only one person has mentioned the fact that they aren't allowed to vote again even though the choice they first voted on has been removed. I believe this will be a general problem since when I look on the vote statistic it doesn't add up. This leaves me with two choices: Disregard the people who voted for Toph in the first place, or make a new poll so everything is reset, meaning that the people who already voted for the others would need to recast their vote. I'm leaning towards the second, so unless good argumentation is given by the first of June the poll will be reset. I apologize for the inconvenience, but it seems like the only way to allow everyone to be heard.

Rasengan:

At this point I'm almost set with the different variations, though I am still open to suggestions. Name discussion for the water version is particularly pressing, as it is the one he will likely learn and use first of the three.

Fire rasengan:

Name: Rasendoragon

Looks: It looks like the spiraling ball is inside a dragons mouth and once throw the body of a dragon follows it, though if not throw hard enough the by user, the dragon tail will become irantic and so will the movements of the move itself.

When hurled it destroys the air along its path and sucks everything inwards in its trail before the entire path erupts into a huge explosion of flame and the point of impact is basically disintegrated like a direct hit from a Rasenshuriken, just with incredible heat that instantly sublimates everything it hits into a gas. Weakness': If it isn't hurled strongly enough its direction becomes unstable and it can start flying in random directions. It can also be rather fragile so it can explode before reaching it's target.

Water rasengan:

Name: Rasenuzumaki, Rasenmaki or Rasenuzu (Suppose to be spiraling whirlpool. I could see Naruto calling it Rasenuzumaki, but Aang's personallity might counteract it. Unless I hear good arguments against it I'll go with Rasenuzumaki)

Looks: looks similar to the rasenshuriken, only instead of four blades it had one continues line that goes in a circle around the center, similar to the symbol of Uzushiogakure.

When used it absorbs any water nearby, including from the user, once it hit something it crushes whatever is utterly, and then explodes like the Nidaime or Kisame just fired off their strongest water technique, releasing all the water it collected, including the water chakra used to create it. This would be the sort of thing which alters the entire terrain, adding like five feet of standing water until it drains away. It could wash away a whole army in a single blow. If used underwater or hurled into water, it'd hit, drill straight into the ocean or pond or lake or whatever, and then all the water in a huge area around it would start swirling and collapsing inward, creating a huge whirlpool almost instantly. Instant fleet-killer. Drag in a dozen ships in an area half a mile across and grind them into scrap. Weakness': If held to long it absorbs the liquid in the users body, making them useless, if not killing them outright. Changing the terrain might not be helpful for ones allies, making it a double edged sword, and the same is true for the whirlpool version

Earth rasengan:

Name: Rasendoriru or Rasenshuuren (Spiraling drill)

Looks: like the Water rasengan, only instead of the spiral going into the rasengan it moves upwards making it look like a drill is surrounding the rasengan.

Unlike the static form that most other rasengans have, this one is unstable and constantly vibrating at an incredible pace. Anything it touches has to follow it vibrations or it will grind them to dust. This means that if used on a person it turns their bones to dust and if used on the ground it creates an earthquake. It could potentially damage the person using it and if used on the ground it could potentially damage the tectonic plates, messing up the very makeup of a plan


	10. Jet

A/N: This is likely the last chapter to be posted on this site, see AN at the bottom for details.

* * *

><p>Aang, Katara, Sokka and Appa rested in a forrest clearing, Appa laying down, Karara and Sokka where sitting down while Aang just stood. Momo wasn't anywhere in sight and Aang was starting to get a little anxious since he hadn't come back yet.<p>

"Where's Momo?" He asked the two others, hoping that they had seen where the lemur had gone of to, but before they could answer they all heard Momo's yowl echoing through the forrest.

They started to look around, trying to tell where the call had come from. A moment later Sokka and Katara got up from the ground as Aang started running of in one direction. Soon after they arrived in a clearing where they saw momo suspended in the air in a ball-like cage.

"Hang on Momo!" Aang said before, with a sweep of his arms, he made an airbending leap, rebounding of a close-by tree trunks in order to reach the treebranch that held the rope to the cage. Attached to the nearby trunk is a small winch. A rope enters the winch from lower on the trunk, then continues up to an eyeloop bolt attached to the underside of the branch, before hanging straight down. As Aang reached the branch he quickly sat down before flipping backwards, using his legs to hold onto the branch. As he dangled beneath it like an acrobat on a trapeze he quickly grabbed the rope, released a latch on the winch, and carefully feed more line in order to lower the cage.

Meanwhile, on the ground Sokka and Katara eased the snare down to the ground between them and together pulled the squeaky slats apart enough to make an exit. Momo immediately hopped out and jumped a few feet away before eating the nuts. Sokka and Katara released the snare, and Sokka groaned and slapped his forehead because Momo was happily eating the things that got it in trouble in the first place without showing any gratitude to them for saving him.

At that point Aang had jumped back down to join them, however as he landed he immediately looked back up (with Katara and Sokka following his example) in response to the pleading moans coming from the hog monkeys.

"All right" Aang said as he looked at them "you too."

(He then crouched before springing upwards in a spiraling column of wind that carried him up towards the branch that the Hog Monkeys where suspended from.

Meanwhile Sokka reached behind his back to get his boomerang while saying "This is gonna take forever." He then threw his boomerang in one fluid move sending it at the ropes that kept the monkeys suspended. The boomerang hit the ropes thus cutting them and causing the cages to fal to the ground.

Aang who had been closing in on the cages by hanging from the branch and crawling towards them looked down to the ground in response to them falling and the screams from the monkeys.

"That works." He stated as he saw Sokka's solution.

At that point the hog monkeys had left the cages (that had opened on impact), and retreated towards the trees. As Aang slid down the three to join the others Sokka went to the cages and examined them closely.

"These are Fire Nation traps" He stated "you can tell from the metalwork. We'd better pack up camp, and get moving."

* * *

><p>Soon they where back at their camp and packing up their things but as Katara was handing her roll of gear to Aang (who was sitting on Appa head) Sokka exclaimed while walking towards them:<p>

´"Ah-ah. no flying this time."

"What?" Katara asked in a shocked tone of voice

Aang hands the roll to Sokka, who puts it on the ground.

"Why wouldn't we fly?" Aang asked.

"Think about it. Somehow Prince Zuko and the Fire Nation keep finding us." Sokka stated "It's because they spot Appa, he's just too noticeable."

"What!" Katara exclaimed "Appa's not too noticeable!"

"He's a gigantic fluffy monster with an arrow on his head" Sokka deadpanned "it's kinda hard to miss him!"

In response to his comment Appa turned his head to groan at him.

"Sokka's just jealous 'cause he doesn't have an arrow." Aang said gently while petting Appa's head.

"I know you all want to fly, but my instincts tell me we should play it safe this time and walk." Sokka stated, ignoring Aangs comment.

"Who made you the boss?" Katara asked fiercely.

"I'm not the boss" Sokka stated "I'm the leader."

At that point Aang was getting ready to say something but was cut off.

"You're the leader?" Katara asked incredulously "But your voice still cracks!"

"I'm the oldest and I'm a warrior." Sokka stated in a high-pinched tone before forcing his voice to be deeper "So...I'm the leader!"

"If anyone's the leader, it's Aang." Katara stated "I mean, he is the Avatar."

"Aangs more of a teacher and protector than a leader" Sokka countered.

"I'm still the oldest and a ninja" Aang supplied, using Sokka's own arguments against him.

"Why do boys always think someone has to be the leader?" Katara stated at them both before turning to Sokka and adding "I bet you wouldn't be so bossy if you kissed a girl."

"I-I've kissed a girl" Sokka stated unconvincingly "you...just haven't met her."

"Who? Gran-gran?" Katara asked "I've met Gran-gran."

"No, besides Gran-gran." Sokka stated, still not convincing anyone. He then changed the subject "Look, my instincts tell me we have a better chance of slipping through on foot and a leader has to trust his instincts."

"Okay, we'll try it your way Oh Wise Leader." Katara said, the title in a sarcastic tone.

* * *

><p>After walking for a short while Aang decided that he should do some training as they walked.<p>

"At least I'll get to train my branch jumping again" Aang said while getting ready to jump upwards.

"No branch jumping" Sokka stated "Since the fire nation is in the forest they might spot you if you travel through the treetops."

"Then what else can I do, I can't use my byakugan while walking since I need to focus to much to keep it stable." Aang complained

"Just ask Sokka's instincts, since they seems to have an answer to everything" Katara said.

"Ha ha." Sokka responded sarcastically "Very funny."

"And I still don't get why Appa couldn't carry the packs for us" Aang continued

"You know who you should ask to carry it for a while?" Katara asked with a smile "Sokka's Instincts!"

"That's a great idea!" Aang responded, going along with Katara's joke "Hey, Sokka's Instincts, would you mind"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Sokka replied in an annoyed tone "Look guys, I'm tired too. But the important thing is that" He went on as he pushed through some red-leafed bushes while turned towards Aang and Katara "we're safe from … the" At that point he turns to see what's on the other side of the bushes "Fire...Nation..."

What caused his halted speech was the fact that he had lead them straight into an occupied fire nation encampment made up of three Pavilion tents, and an active fire pit with logs as benches on two sides.

All the soldiers in the camp seem to have been taken by surprise by their sudden appearance (having been getting ready to eat, already eating or just finished eating and preparing for some training.)

"Run!" Sokka yells as he drops his backpack, an action the other two mirrored.

The soldiers quickly gets up in response and a soldier with an eye patch quickly firebends at them. They manage to dodge it, Sokka using Chakra to get him out of the way, but the fire hits the bushes in front of them cutting of their escape.

"We're cut off!" Sokka yells in a panic seeing as the soldiers had quickly moved to circle them in and the wall of fire making up the last part of their cage.

Aang, Katara and Sokka quickly moved to put their backs together and face the warriors, ready to fight if necessary.

"If you let us pass, we promise not to hurt you." Sokka said with false bravado.

"What are you doing?" Katara asked him quietly.

"Bluffing?" Sokka whispered back uncertainly.

The one eyed soldier, who judging from his stance was likely the captain, just smiled in response to Sokka's statement.

"You?" He asked, sounding like he was about to begin laughing "Promise not to hurt us?"

At that point Aang heard the zipping sound of something flying through the air followed by a thud as the hit something. The Captain looked surprised for a moment, before he groaned and collapsed face first on the ground, causing his men lower their weapons a little in surprise.

Aang immediately tried to look for the attacker, since he knew Sokka wasn't responsible.

"Look!" Katara yelled directing his attention to a nearby tree.

There he sees a person drop what Aang identified as a blowgun and then drew two hook blades from the middle of his back.. He stepped off the back of the branch holding his hook blades high, having them grab hold of the branch and swinging him forward allowing him to land on two of the fire nation soldiers knocking them to the ground.

At that point he stood still long enough for them to get a good look at him: The guy turned out to be a man around the same age as Sokka. Except for a red vest, he's dressed from neck to toe in dark green clothing. shoulder caps and hip/upper thigh covers that worked as his armor was mismatched. He had a shaggy mane of brown hair, and a twig held in his teeth.

Then he once again rushed forward with a blade held out to each side. When he reached two soldier he quickly hocked the blade on their feet before swinging them over his head and sending them towards where Aang and his friends stood, more precisely making them land on top of the captain.

"Down you go." The guy said as he landed on his feet.

Aang had to admit it was an awe-inspiring display, though he couldn't shake the feeling that the guy reminded him of someone, and not in a good way. Katara meanwhile looked really impressed, at not just with his skills from what Aang could see out of the corner of his eyes. Sokka meanwhile had a look of disbelief on his face.

At that point a soldier rushed up from behind the guy with his sword raised. The young man hooked his opponent's sword hand as he spun sending the soldier flying forward as the guy returned to his former stance.

At that point one of the soldiers spot something else. "They're in the trees!" He yelled trying to warn the other as a small boy drops from above to land on the soldiers shoulder before spinning his helmet around to blind him and causing him to begin to stagger about.

Before any of the other soldiers can come to his aid they get disarmed by arrows shot at them from above an hitting their weapons in order to knock them out of their hands.

The archer, who was sitting on a branch of another tree, reached for the quiver on his back to take out another two arrows that he fits to his bow before swinging backward, until he is hanging beneath the branch by his knees. He then takes aim at some other soldiers and let his arrows fly in order to knock the weapons from their hands.

Meanwhile another person dropped from a branch between two soldiers that had been focused on the archer. One of them noticed him and quickly ran towards him with his sword raised to stab the unarmed newcomer. The fighter quickly bend below the stab causing the soldier to fall across the fighters back as he raised himself up throwing the soldier onto a branch above him.

The second soldier was more cautious in his approach and instead tried to slash the fighter from a distance but the fighter dodged before moving in quickly to grab, spin and throw the soldier to the ground.

Meanwhile Katara guarded Aangs back from attacks while Aang caught two soldiers in an aircurrent and used it to pull them along the ground in a circle around them.

Sokka, boomerang raised in both hands, shouted a war cry and made a subtile move to catapult himself towards the soldier coming at him. He managed to hit the soldier back only to get kicked to the side by the guy with the hook blades.

"Hey, why did you kick me?" Sokka asked as he rolled back to his feet.

"Sorry, didn't think you'd jump at the guy" the fighter yelled before turning and rejoining the battle, slightly annoyed that his plan to take the glory from Sokka failed.

At that point a large fighter joined the fight by blocking two soldier escape route. The soldiers are intimidated by his size but still take a battle stance. The giant pulled a log from behind his and swings it at the soldiers who manage to block it with their swords. This, however, leaves their swords bend beyond use and the soldiers drop them before quickly running away.

Meanwhile the fighter with the hook blades faced of against an determined spearman. The man jabbed for his throat, but he caught the spearshaft with the hooks of his swords. They struggled for a moment, before Jet spun and sidestepped the spear. With one sword free, he used it to hook the soldier and send both him and his spear flying. The soldier's spear flew towards a nearby soldier but before it could connect the soldiers opponent, Sokka, managed to knock him down. This caused the spear to hit Sokka straight in the head knocking him backwards.

"Man that hurt" Sokka said while rubbing his face.

Another spearman attempted to strike the hook blade fighter from behind, but the fighter managed to catch the spearpoint in the space between the grip and the crescent-shaped guard of his sword and redirect it away from his head. The soldier quickly followed the spear, pushing it free before turning to face the fighter again, spinning his spear in his hand to intimidate his opponent before going in for another attack. The fighter is unimpressed as he quickly retook his stance and catching the speartip with his hooks this time and angles the spear into the ground. He then ran up it, leapt over the soldier before kicking of the back off his head. He then landed clumsily and stumbled a few steps forwards before coming to a stop right in front of Katara.

"Hey." He said nonchalantly as if he hadn't just nearly fallen over.

"Hi." Katara replied shyly before the both of them turned to survey the camp, which was now emptied of fire-nation Soldiers.

"Those were some impressive moves" Aang stated as he walked up to them with Sokka also joining from a different direction.

"Pfft. He wasn't very good at reading my moves though" Sokka stated "Unless he was actually trying to attack me"

"My name is Jet, and these are my Freedom Fighters." The guy with the hook blades stated, ignoring Sokka jibe. "Sneers" He stated, indicating towards the quick fighter who hadn't used any weapons and who was currently busy eating some of the food left behind, "Longshot" He stated towards the archer who raised his paddy-hat covered head at his name. "Smellerbee" He said pointing at a repel red facepaint, knife between her teeth, a firenation sword across her back and two other swords, one in each of her hands (Aang instincts where telling him that it was a girl even though she looked like a boy). "The Duke and Pipsqueak." Jet ended the introduction pointing at the small boy who had been the first to join the fight and the giant who was the last to join in.

Aang couldn't help himself and quickly walked over to The Duke and Pipsqueak

"Pipsqueak" He stated as he arrived in front of them "that's a funny name." While making sure to not look at either of them.

The Duke (the small boy) sniffled slightly, due to having a runny nose, while pipsqueak bend down and glowered at him.

"You think my name is funny?" Pipsqueak said in a threatening tone.

Aang, realizing that they might not have the humour for his comment never the less plastered a smile on his face as he said "It's hilarious."

A moment later Pipsqueak couldn't keep a straight face any longer and started laughing soon followed by Aang and The Duke. Pipsqueak then went to try and slap Aangs back, but Aang, out of instinct, rolled forward and avoided it. Luckily The Duke managed to jump back to avoid getting a slap in the face, before they all continued laughing.

After they had calmed down the rebels started going about their tasks. Sneers started checking for cooking supplies and food near the camp fire. Longshot started checking his bow and arrows (He needed the most time to prepare if the soldiers returned). Smellerbee collected and sorted the weapons. Pipsqueak and The duke went to work searching the tent and any storage barrels or creates near them.

Aang and Sokka both observed them, though Sokka was mostly watching Katara as she walked over to Jet who was reclining against the trunk of a tree on the perimeter of the camp (Aang was also keeping an ear on her but was being much more subtle about it, not wanting Katara to think he was trying to interfere).

"Um...thanks for saving us Jet." Katara said shyly as she reached him "We were lucky you were there."

"I should be thanking you." Jet said nonchalantly "We were waiting to ambush those soldiers all morning" He further explained "we just needed the right distraction. And then you guys stumbled in."

"We were relying on instincts." Katara said bitterly while glancing at her brother.

"You'll get yourself killed doing that." Jet stated, glad for an opportunity to finally make a jibe at Sokka, seeing as his attempts to make him look bad in battle failed.

In response Sokka closed his eyes in frustration because he knew his choice had actually been the reason they had got into this mess.

Aang also agreed that it wasn't the best choice though he did realize that Sokka was probably right about Appa giving them away.

At that point Pipsqueak and the Duke were investigating the inside of a barrel next to one of the pavilion tents. The Duke reached in and scooped up some green goo from it. He then held it up to his nose and sniffed at it before looking towards Jet.

"Hey Jet" He yelled to get his attention "these barrels are filled with blasting jelly."

"That's a great score." Stated while smiling enthusiastically.

At that point Pipsqueak held up a large crate that had been right beside the barrels.

"And these boxes are filled with jelly candy!" He stated happily.

"Also good." Jet replied though not nearly as enthusiastically as before "Let's not get those mixed up."

At that point Aang, with Momo on his shoulders, starts walking to Pipsqueak and the Duke while Sneers joins them in loading up a four-wheeled wagon with the supplies they'd found.

"We'll take the stuff back to the hideout." The duke said while sitting on the wagon guiding the others and keeping inventory.

"So you guys have a hideout somewhere in the forest?" Aang asked, slightly interested.

"You wanna see it?" Jet asked casually.

"Yes we wanna see it!" Katara said as she slid up beside him, clasping her hand in a begging posture.

Even though Aang still couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong about Jet, he didn't know enough to come up with a good reason not to see the hideout, so decided to go along with Katara's decision. He mostly went along with it because he knew it wasn't fair of him to ask her to be in a polygynous relationship and Katara seemed to be interested in Jet, therefore he didn't want to block her. Still he would keep an eye on Jet to make sure he wouldn't be a danger to Katara.

* * *

><p>It wasn't long till everything had been put onto the wagon and Pipsqueak but in charge of taking it with them as Jet lead the way to their hideout.<p>

After walking for about 15 minutes Jet said "We're here."

"Where" Sokka said while looking around "there's nothing here!"

"Hold this." Jet stated as he took a rope that had a loop at the end and handed it to Sokka. Aang noticed that the other end got filtered into a branch because of how Jet moved it, but didn't have time to say it because Sokka had already taken the rope at that point.

"Why" Sokka asked confused "what's this do?"

At that point a strong pull from the other end of the rope caused it to lock around Sokka's wrist before violently pulling him up into the trees (and causing him to scream as he traveled through the air), though he got momentarily stuck in the branches along the way.

"Aang?" Jet asked as he tried to hand him a rope like he did Sokka, also filtered into a branch.

"I'll get up on my own." Aang stated as Momo took flight, leaving Aangs shoulder. Aang quickly followed with a mixture of airbending leaps and treewalking.

He looked down to see Jet using a quick move to untangle the rope before turning to Katara and holding out a hand to her.

"Grab hold of me Katara." Jet said. Once she took it he quickly pulled her to him, spinning her along the way before holding her against his chest, causing her to blush. The rope is then pulled upward in a much more steady manner then what Sokka had experienced, likely because it hadn't been tangled in the branches.

At that point Aang broke to the canopy and Katara and Jet were blocked from view. He then looked around and saw multiple platforms surrounding the treetrunks with wooden stairs going higher up the trunks some ending at smaller platforms and some ending in tree houses, or more commonly tents placed on a wooden foundation. The bigger platforms were linked by rope bridges while some of the smaller ones had ropes that one could slide between them.

Just as he was done getting a first impression of the place Jet and Katara rose through a hole in the floor of one of the platforms.

"Nice place you got!" Aang yelled from the platform he had landed on before branch jumping to another platform closer to them to get another viewpoint and to be able to listen in. Meanwhile Jet and Katara surveyed the parts of the tree village below them.

"It's beautiful up here!" As she looked at everything below them.

"It's beautiful" Jet agreed "and more importantly the Fire Nation can't find us."

It was then that Smellerbee came in from below and landed by them.

"They would love to find you." She stated fiercely "Wouldn't they, Jet?"

"It's not gonna happen, Smellerbee." He said in a calm and self-assured voice.

He then started leading Katara, Sokka, and the main force of his freedom fighters along a rope bridge, Aang jumping along side them and listening in.

"Why does the Fire Nation want to find you?" Katara asked curiously.

"I guess you could say I've been causing them a little trouble." Jet replied casually "See, they took over a nearby Earth Kingdom town a few years back."

"We've been ambushin' their troops, cutting off their supply lines, and doing anything we can to mess with 'em." Pipsqueak elaborated while Sokka was trying to see past him.

"One day, we'll drive the Fire Nation out of here for good and free that town." Jet stated confidently while smiling at Katara, though something about his words seemed hollow to Aang.

"That's so brave." Katara said, looking away but also smiling.

At that point Sokka managed to get past Pipsqueak and walked up to join them.

"Yeah, nothing's braver than a guy in a treehouse." He said sarcastically.

"Don't pay any attention to my brother." Katara stated, annoyed by Sokka's butting in.

"No problem." Jet said casually "He probably had a rough day."

"So, you all live here?" Katara asked, changing the topic while Sokka fell back slightly

"That's right. Longshot over there?" Jet said while indicating towards Longshot's who had his head slightly bowed while walking beside the duke "His town got burned down by the fire Nation. And we found the Duke trying to steal our food. I don't think he ever really had a home."

"What about you?" Katara went on, since she really wanted to know more about him.

At that point Jet stopped and let the rest of the group pass them by, though Aang stayed within earshot, still not trusting the guy.

"Fire Nation killed my parents." Jet stated sadly while looking down "I was only eight years old. That day changed me forever."

"Sokka and I lost our mother to the Fire Nation." Katara stated sadly.

"I'm so sorry, Katara." Jet responded as the two of them overlooked the treehouse village.

After a while the two continued on and soon reached a large platform that held a table that was being made ready for a banquet to celebrate the rebels win. Once everything was ready they all sat down and started eating and drinking.

Aang observed that ever since they'd reached the village Jet had stopped trying to outdo Sokka as he did before. He figured the change had occurred when Katara had called Sokka her brother, since before that he only knew they were from the same village, and likely saw Sokka as a potential rival. It was probably Aangs skills that had kept Jet from trying to do the same to him. He kept the observation to himself though; Katara wouldn't believe it and Sokka might get frustrated that his skills weren't good enough to make Jet back of on their own.

Aang snapped out of his mussing when Jet made a move to stand up

"Today, we struck another blow against the Fire Nation swine." Jet began as he stood up and climbed onto the table getting cheers from the other rebels around the table and a smile from Katara in response.

"Seeing you struck blows against me almost as much as them I'm not impressed" Sokka mumbled though only Aang and Katara heard him, Katara sending him a annoyed look and elbowing him.

"I got a special joy from the look on one soldier's face, when the Duke dropped down on his helmet and rode him like a wild hog monkey." Jet stated with a self-satisfied smirk.

At that point the Duke (without his helmet as he had taken it of when they got seated) stood up from his place between Longshot and Smellerbee and joined Jet on the table. Then, amid the cheers from the rebel took a victory walk around a fish platter.

"Now, the Fire Nation thinks they don't have to worry about a couple of kids hiding in the trees." He said as he prepared to take a drink from his wooden cup "Maybe they're right."While the rebels booed at that sentiment Jet drank a little. "Or maybe" Jet continued "they are dead wrong."

Aang didn't like the way Jet stressed the word dead, but since no one else seemed inclined to comment on it he didn't comment. He also realized that he may have imagined it. Meanwhile the other rebels started to cheer wildly in response to the speech.

Jet meanwhile moved towards Aang and his friends making Katara move over to make room and forcing Aang to do the same.

"Hey Jet, nice speech." She said as Jet reached them and took the now open spot between Katara and Sokka.

"Thanks. By the way, I was really impressed with you and Aang." He stated "That was some great bending I saw out there today."

"Well, he's great. He's the Avatar." Katara stated shyly "I could use some more training." She then blushed slightly both because of Jet being there and because she had complemented Aang like that with him sitting beside her.

"Avatar huh?" Jet said thoughtfully, though his eyes seemed to narrow almost unnoticeable. "Very nice."

"Thanks Jet." Aang stated politely, though still on guard.

"So I might know a way that you and Aang can help in our struggle." Jet stated, but didn't get any further in his explanation.

"Unfortunately we have to leave tonight." Sokka stated before standing up and beginning to walk away

"Sokka, you're kidding me!" Jet said in a sad voice (though Aang thought it sounded fake) "I needed you on an important mission tomorrow."

Aang wondered whether Jet tempted Sokka with a mission only to get them to stay longer or if it was also a peace offering for the earlier attacks.

If nothing else he succeeded in the former as Sokka immediately stopped and turned before asking "What mission?"

* * *

><p>The next day Aang sent a clone along with Jet, Pipsqueak, Smellerbee and Sokka, though neither of them where aware of its presence as it kept out of sight.<p>

Once they reached some large trees along a path through the forest Jet stopped and signaled for the others to go into some of the trees further down the road while he lead Sokka into the one nearest their location.

Aangs clone went into another tree a bit of the road but close enough to allow him to see and hear Jet and Sokka along with most of the road.

Once Jet had given the others time to get into position he cupped his hand and whistle in a way that sounded a little like a bird. This made Pipsqueak and Smellerbee stepped into view before returning the whistle, indicating that they where ready.

At that point Sokka rammed his jawbone knife into the trunk of the tree.

"What are you doing?" Jet asked annoyed, having been startled by the sound.

"Shh" Sokka replied while moving his ear towards the pommel. "it amplifies vibrations."

"Good trick." Jet said, impressed.

Sokka then cupped his hands around the pommel just as his ear reached it. He then looked towards the tree Aang was in, but once he saw who it was he ignored it.

"Nothing yet." He said before gaining a look of concentration and lowering his voice "Wait! Yes, someone's approaching."

"How many?" Jet asked in a low voice.

"I think there's just one." Sokka replied toughtfully.

Jet immediately turned and whistled to the other before looking back at Sokka "Good work, Sokka." He stated "Ready your weapon."

Sokka pulled the knife out of the tree and waited. His eyes went wide, however when he saw that the person he'd just warned Jet about turned out to be an old man wearing a red robe and using a cane.

"Wait! False alarm" Sokka said in a low voice "he's just an old man."

Jet, ignoring Sokka, stood up and extended his hook blades as he leaped to the ground right in front of the traveler to both Sokka's and the clones horror. Sokka not acting because of shock and the clone not acting because it was meant to stay hidden. It would only step in if the old man was in danger. It did however henge itself to look like a earth nation soldier in case it needed to step in.

"What are you doing in our woods, you leech." Jet said angrily he straightened up after his landing.

"Please sir, I'm just a traveler." The old man said fearfully as he started backing away.

Jet took a step forward and with a swipe of his sword send the old man's cane flying from his hand. The old man continued to back away (though hampered by the lack of his cane), but when he tried to turn away and flee back the way he came he ran face first into Pipsqueak's chest. The force of the impact knocked him to the ground while Pipsquak loomed over him. He turned and tried to crawl away, but Pipsqueak's put a foot on his backside effectively pinning him down.

"Do you like destroying towns?" Jet said angrily as he bend over the pinned old man, one of his swords held close to the old man's face, though not close enough to risk damaging it "Do you like destroying families? Do you?!"

"Oh. please let me go" The old man said haltingly, fright clear in his voice "have mercy."

"Does the Fire Nation let people go?!" Jet asked angrily in response "Does the Fire Nation have mercy?!"

Jet pulled back is leg, getting ready for a kick. The only thing that stopped Aang's clone from interfering was that Sokka was already there. Sokka used his club to snag Jet's foot forcing him to concentrate on keeping his balance.

"Jet, he's just an old man!" Sokka said while Jet regained his balance and freed his foot from the club.

"He's Fire Nation!" Jet said angrily as he went up to Sokka "Search him!" He said to the other two.

Pipsqueak quickly pulled up the old man, holding him so the Smellerbee could seach him.

"But he's not hurting anyone!" Sokka argued.

"Have you forgotten that the Fire Nation killed your mother?" Jet said, still standing right in front of Sokka "Remember why you fight."

"We've got his stuff, Jet." Smellerbee cut in, holding up the shoulder satchel the old man was carrying.

"This doesn't feel right." Sokka said, looking at the old man kneeling in front of Pipsqueak.

"It's what has to be done" Jet stated while putting a hand on Sokka's shoulder. "now let's get outta here." He continued using the hand to push Sokka aside. Pipsqueak and Smellerbee immediately followed while Sokka looked at the old man who was on his hands and knees.

"Come on Sokka!" Jet said again, causing Sokka to turn and run after them.

Once they left Aang's clone (after dropping its henge) jumped down from his tree walked over to the old man, picking up his cane along the way.

"Here's your cane" He said as he reached him, bending down and helping the old man get back to his feet.

"Thank you" The old man said quietly as he regained his footing. "Who are you?" He then asked.

"Someone who agrees with Sokka about this type of action not being acceptable." Aang's clone replied cryptically, not wanting there to be a rumor that the Avatar was in the forest, though the fact that he'd dropped the henge hadn't been a smart move in that regards. "Can you get back to the village on your own?"

"Yes, I think so" the old man replied while pressing down on each leg individually to make sure that they weren't damaged by the rebels.

"That's good, because I don't have much time left" Aang's clone said as he turned and ran out of sight before dispelling, wanting Aang to know what happened before Jet returned.

* * *

><p>Aang had just gotten a satchel of exploding pellets from the Duke when the memories from his clone hit him, making him less inclined to play around with them.<p>

Aang managed to sneak a clone into Jet's room without anyone noticing, and had it henge to hide itself. He then started swinging around the ziplines, pretending to have fun, though really keeping an eye on everything that was going on, while waiting for Sokka and the others to return. He didn't think that his claim alone would be enough to convince Katara though, so he decided to wait with telling her.

Once he saw them return he waited a little while longer before zipping down to Sokka (who was sitting with his back against the tree that held the treehouse they were staying in), landing in front of him and stating in a low voice "I'm going to pretend that I wasn't with you guys today and pretend that I'm supportive of Jet. That way I might be able to learn something if he has some defence for attacking that old guy." He then backed away slightly, "I'm telling you that you have to see what the Duke gave me Sokka" He stated, in a louder voice, knowing it would draw out Katara and allow Sokka to say his piece.

At that point he pulled one of the pellets out of the satchel before throwing one of them slightly in front of Momo. Momo got slightly shocked by the small explosion puffing up like a startled cat before growling and lunging for the satchel. He grabbed some pellet and crawled up onto Aang's shoulder before throwing the pellets at his feet, forcing Aang to perform a weird dance to avoid them.

"Ow!" Aang yelled in response "Quit it!"

As that was happening Katara had come down from the tent/house and was walking towards Sokka.

"Hey Sokka." She stated as he drew near "Is Jet back?"

"Yeah" Sokka stated angrily "he's back. But we're leaving."

"What?" Aang said, playing dump.

"But I made him this hat." Katara stated, holding up a cap made out of stitched leaves with a flower on top. Aang managed to keep a straight face, though he had a hard time due to the hat definitely not being a masterpiece.

"Your boyfriend Jet's a thug." Sokka stated, still with anger in his voice.

"What?" Katara said in shock "No, he's not." She went on, though Aang wasn't sure if she was responding to the boyfriend or the thug bit.

"He's messed up Katara." Sokka responded, believing her disagreement to be about the latter. Before Katara collected her wits to respond he continued. "He beat and robbed a harmless old man"

"I wanna hear Jet's side of the story." Katara stated simply before turning and leading them towards Jet's tent.

* * *

><p>"Sokka" Jet asked after Katara had asked him whether it was true that he beat up an old man, "you told them what happened but you didn't mention that the guy was Fire Nation?"<p>

Jet was sitting on his bed, looking a little annoyed, an expression mirrored by Katara as she turned and glared at Sokka.

"No, he conveniently left that part out." Katara said, her voice dripping with sarcasm at the 'conveniently' part.

"Fine!" Sokka replied in a annoyed and slightly angry voice "But even if he was Fire Nation, he was a harmless civilian"

"He was an assassin, Sokka." Jet stated. Aang just barely managed to stop himself from rising his eyebrows at that story.

Jet then pulled out a knife and thrust it into a block of wood nearby wood block. It was quite sinister looking There are four spikes evenly spaced along the grip with enough space for fingers to go between them and a curved blade. There was also a ring on the butt of the knife.

"See?" Jet stated as he started turning the ring "There's a compartment for poison in the knife". He pulled on the ring and removed a small glass tube filled with red liquid. "He was sent to eliminate me" He said closing his eyes "you helped save my life, Sokka."

"I knew there was an explanation" Katara stated in relief.

Meanwhile Aang was having a lot of trouble keeping his cover. First of a knife of that size would have been hard to conceal, and even then Sokka or his clone should have seen Smellerbee remove it. There was also the fact that Jet had been beating the guy up before having any kind of proof that the guy was out to assassinate him, meaning that at the time he should have been open to the possibility of him being a harmless old man, making his defense invalid. While it was okay to be suspicious without proof, one should always have some before attacking.

"I didn't see any knife!" Sokka stated simply.

"That's because he was concealing it." Jet responded.

"See Sokka?" Katara said, as if everything had been resolved "I'm sure you just didn't notice the knife."

"There was no knife!" Sokka stated angrily since Katara was basically taking a strangers words over his "I'm going back to the hut and packing my things." He then stated before he turned and left.

"Tell me you guys aren't leaving yet." Jet said pleadingly "I really need your help."

"What can we do?" Aang asked curiously, hoping to find out what Jet was planing.

"The Fire Nation is planning on burning down our forest." Jet stated "If you both use water bending to fill the reservoir, we could fight the fires. But if you leave now, they'll destroy the whole valley."

Aang and Katara each looked at each other. Aang had to admit that based on what happened with Hei-Bai forest but something about it seemed of. Still he stayed and listened to Jet's explanation before following her back to their hut were Sokka was busy packing up their things.

"We can't leave now with the Fire Nation about to burn down a forest!" Katara said fiercely interrupting his packing.

"I'm sorry Katara." Sokka stated simply "Jet's very smooth, but we can't trust him."

"You know what I think?" Katara said angrily "You're jealous that he's a better warrior and a better leader!"

"That's a little hash Katara" Aang stated before Sokka could respond. "Sokka is right to be distrustful of the guy since that knife was never brought up during the time Jet was beating the old guy, meaning that his defense for attacking him is shady."

"Now your just taking Sokka's side because you know I like the guy" Katara said even angrier than before. "If you two are going to let jealousy get in the way of protecting this forest then you can just leave without me." She then turned and left the hut quickly.

Aang quickly made a clone to follow her to ensure she didn't alert Jet to the fact that both Sokka and Aang were against him.

Once the clone left he turned to Sokka. "I don't know what he wants with the water but I don't think it's about extinguishing fires. Since he wants me and Katara start filling it early tomorrow it's likely that he'll set up whatever he's planned sometime tonight or very early tomorrow before we get up." He stated "Therefore we need to be on guard for when they make their move and then wake Katara and sneak after them to show her what Jet is really like."

"So we need to take turns being awake" Sokka concluded "If this plan leads to a fight, and my instincts are telling me that it will, then we can't have gone all night without sleep."

"Okay, then I'll take the first shift" Aang stated.

* * *

><p>It was during Sokka's shift that the rebels made their move.<p>

"Let's go." He heard Jet's voice say. He quickly got up and shook Aang before going to the flab of the door and looking outside to see some of Jet's followers descending down the rope lines. He quickly looked back and saw Aang creating a clone while trying to wake up Katara and then jumped out the hut and grabbing one of the ropes to get onto a lower branch, joined moments later by Aangs clone.

"You follow them on the ground, I'll follow along through the trees and leave clones for the boss and Katara to follow" The clone stated in a low voice, as they observe the rebels start to push a loaded wagon away quietly, clearly not wanting to alert anyone of their leaving.

Sokka nodded in agreement; The trees were probably a better choice for the clone, and it couldn't take him along since it needed to make clones so carrying him would cost valuable time and could make them lose sight of the rebels. Sokka used another robe to get down onto the ground and started sneaking after Jet, while Aangs clone started jumping quietly along the branches, using his ninja instincts to find the most stable ones that would make the least sound.

Meanwhile Aang had just managed to wake up Katara causing her to look out the window and seeing that it was still dark outside. After that she turned and glared at Aang "Why are you waking me this early." She asked, annoyance clear in her voice.

"There's something you need to see right now." Aang stated as he turned away from her before getting down on a knee and spreading his arms slightly, indicating that he wanted her to get on his back "Get on and be as quiet as you can. I know you don't have much faith in my words right now, but at least trust me on this." He continued.

While Katara was slightly weary of Aang because of him insulting Jet, she still trusted him, so she quickly climbed onto his back.

Once she was secured Aang jumped outside but was careful not to move to quickly or roughly as Katara had never been transported like this before. It took some time for him to catch up to them but managed to reach them just as the rebels reached their destination, a cliff overlooking a dam and (downstream from the dam) a earth nation town. At that point the sun was slowly rising in the horizon.

Jet went to look over the edge of the cliff, focusing his eyes on the dam and the fact that the reservoir on the other side is empty before turning back to the other rebels.

"Now listen" He stated seriously "you are not to blow the dam until I give the signal. If the reservoir isn't full, the Fire Nation troops could survive." Aang managed to use a hand to cover Katara's mouth, muffling her gasp.

At that point the Duke jumped of the wagon "But what about the people in the town" He asked in concern "won't they get wiped out too?"

Jet walked up to him and placed a hand on the Duke's shoulder.

"Look Duke, that's the price of ridding this area of the Fire Nation." He stated before turning to Longshot "Now don't blow the dam until I give the signal. got it?" He asked, getting a nod in return.

Aang and Katara in the tree and Sokka on the ground had all been so focused on the exchange that they hadn't noticed that Smellerbee and Pipsqueak had broken of from the rest and closed in on Sokka. The only warning Sokka got was a rustling of the bushes before Pipsqueak grabbed his onto his ponytail and lifted him up allowed Smellerbee to hold a knife to his throat, preventing him from effectively fighting back. His sounds of pain drew the attention of Aang and Katara, but kept his hand of Katara's mouth and signaled for her to stay quiet. At that point Sokka would end up as a hostage if the rebels became aware of their presense.

"Where do you think you're going, ponytail?" Smellerbee asked Sokka with a sneer.

Pipsqueak then grabbed one of Sokka's arms (while he also kept his grip on the ponytail) while Smellerbee put away her knife before grabbing the other and the two of them started dragging Sokka into the clearing near the cliff where Jet was standing.

"Sokka. I'm glad you decided to join us." Jet stated as they drew near.

Smellerbee and Pipsqueak turned Sokka around before pushing him to his knees. Sokka started rubbing the shoulder that Pipsqueak had been holding on to to get the blood flowing back into his arm.

"I heard your plan to destroy the Earth Kingdom town." Sokka stated glaring up at Jet while slowly getting to his feet.

"Our plan is to rid the valley of the Fire Nation." Jet corrected him.

"There are people living there Jet" Sokka stated pleadingly "mothers and fathers and children."

"We can't win without making some sacrifices." Jet responded.

"You lied to Aang and Katara about the forest fire!" Sokka stated while point accusingly at Jet, seeing as the other argument wasn't leading anywhere

"Because they don't understand the demands of war." Jet stated condescendingly "Not like you and I do."

At that point Aang noticed that Katara was looking like someone who had just swallowed something slimy and disgusting. Then he remembered that his clone had witnessed her giving Jet a kiss earlier and thought that was likely the reason for it.

"I do understand." Sokka responded, cutting of Aangs train of thought "I understand that there's nothing you won't do to get what you want."

Aang immediately went alert, in case Jet reacted badly to that rejection.

"I was hoping you'd have an open mind, but I can see you've made your choice." Jet said threateningly. Halfway through the sentence Aang had jumped from the tree he was in onto a branch of another tree nearby, using it as a springboard to dive at Jet.

Pipsqueak and Smellerbee grabbed for Sokka causing him to try and dodge but Jet was blocking his way forward. That changed when Aang crashed into Jet clearing the way for Sokka to roll forward and avoid the other two.

Meanwhile Katara used water-bending to create a water board and combined it with the tree-walking exercise to slide quickly down the trunk of the tree and onto the ground. When she reached it she saw that Smellerbee had pulled out her knife again and was closing in on Sokka. Katara quickly created a waterwhip to disarm Smellerbee and to hit Pipsqueak into a tree causing both to shift their focus onto her.

At that point Jet had gotten back up and was glaring at Aang as he picked up his two hook blades.

"I didn't expect you to come here too." Jet said in an annoyed tone. "Sokka seemed suspicious of us but you and Katara didn't seem to have anything against us."

"Sometimes you have to look beneath the underneath" Aang stated, using a proverb from his village to taunt Jet "I never trusted you, I pretended to in order to get you to lower your guard."

Aang felt someone approach from behind and using Airbending to take to the air managed to dodge Sneers who had tried to grab him from behind. Aang then kicked the back of Sneers heard causing him to stumble forward though Jet managed to support him preventing him from falling over.

At the same time Sokka noticed Longshot getting ready to take a shot at Aang so he quickly threw his boomerang, hitting Longshots bow and causing his shot to almost hit the Duke instead, which caused both of them to turn to Sokka.

Aang, seeing that that fighting was going to be crowded if all stayed in the same area jumped into a tree, and after looking back and seeing Jet swing himself into another tree nearby while Sneers started following along the ground, jumped further into the forest.

Katara also started leading Smellerbee and Pipsqueak into the forest in another direction, using water whips to keep them from shifting their focus.

* * *

><p><strong>Sokka's fight:<strong>

Sokka dodge an arrow from Longshot and was about to throw his boomerang at him when he saw the Duke moving in from the side holding a staff ready to strike. Sokka turner and used the boomerang to block, only to be forced to duck and roll sideways in order to avoid to arrows fired by Longshot.

Once Sokka came out of the roll he glared at Longshot before being forced to jumped to the side to dodge an overhead swing by the Duke. As he landed he swing his boomerang and swung it down on the Dukes staff (that had been hit into the ground when Sokka dodged) and managed to break it in half, taking away some of his range. Sokka was then forced to jump away again as four arrows hit the area between him and the Duke. This gave the Duke time to pick up the two pieces of his staff.

Using them the Duke started to take swings at Sokka, though they where a lot less coordinated. Sokka easily jumped over or ducked under the swings. As Sokka was dodging he noticed that Longshot stopped interfering and skimmed at him only to see him setting fire to an arrow and getting ready to fire it at Sokka. Sokka then remembered the wagon with explosives and when Longshot fired his arrow Sokke used his boomerang to reflect it into the wagon before jumping to the ground as it exploded, the force of which threw the Duke backwards and knocked Longshot out of his tree.

* * *

><p><strong>Aang's fight:<strong>

Aang had managed to lead his to pursuers into a clearing when Jet finally cut up to him. Jet grabbed a branch with his swords and managed to swing himself into Aangs side, causing him to tumble to the forest floor but before he could hit it he was kicked into a tree-trunk by Sneers.

Jet jumped down from above with his hook-blades ready to strike Aang, but Aang managed to regain his barrings and quickly made a substitution causing Jets hook-blades to dig into a log instead.

"What the …" Jet exclamed as he landed in the clearing next to Sneers before kicking the log of his blades.

"To slow" Aang said from a branch right next to where Jet had just hit the log.

He hoped that they would think that he had just blocked them and moved to the branch without them noticing (though they would wonder where the log came from) rather then figuring that he had replaced himself with a log. He was still trying to limit the use of his ninja abilities, at least those that couldn't be mistaken for bending skills of physical abilities.

Aang then started running down the tree, arms out to the side and slightly behind. Once he reached the forest floor he was immediately forced to duck under one of Jet's hook-blades before rolling to the side to dodge a low kick from Sneer. As he ended the roll and was beginning to straighten up he found his foot caught by one of Jets blades and he was quickly pulled into a split.

"To slow" Jet shot back through gritted teeth.

Aang managed to push back of the ground but was forced to cross his arms in front of his chest to minimize the impact of a kick that came from Sneer that threw him back a couple of feet. Aang quickly managed to regain his footing and jumped forward towards Sneers, using airbending both to increase his speed and to supplement the punch. Jet was moving to intercept the attack when the sound of an explosion tore through the air distracting him and allowing Aangs attack to hit an equally distracted Sneers sending him full force into a nearby tree and knocking him out.

The sound of Sneers hitting the tree allowed Jet to regain his focus on the fight and he therefore managed to jump back to avoid an airblast Aang sent his way. Aang quickly followed up his first attack with two air punches that knocked Jet back and caused him to bend over slightly. Aang then made a spinning jump to send another blast at him from above knocking him to the ground where Aang landed on him and bended his blades away from him.

Jet ,however, wasn't done; he rolled over, sending Aang of him, and scrambled to his feet. Aang send another airblast at him before he managed to straighten up sending him headfirst into a tree. Aang then got up to check on the both Jet and Sneers before binding the two together with some rope that Sneers had been carrying. He then threw the end of the rope over a branch and used it to hoist the two into the air before securing them to a nearby tree.

He then jumped into the trees to go look for Katara and Sokka and see whether they where in trouble.

* * *

><p><strong>Katara's figth:<strong>

Katara had managed to lead her pursuers into an area where she would have the advantage; a stream running through the forest (A/N: Same place where she froze Jet in cannon.). Her biggest problem was that along the way she and her pursuers had come by a fallen tree that had been just the right size for Pipsqueak to use as a club so when she threw a waterblast at him he managed to block the water with it.

Smellerbee had run a little up the stream and jumped over it before storming towards Katara with her blades held high. Katara managed to create a wall of ice to block her advance, but was then almost crushed under Pipsqueak's log, just barely managing to sidestep it and the air forced out by the attack still managed to knock her backwards slightly. Pipsqueak, who had stepped into the stream to attack Katara, quickly got up on the other side, but when Katara saw the water he had splashed onto the shore she quickly took a deep breath before blowing steadily at it causing it to freeze to ice, so that when Pipsqueak stepped onto it he slipped and fell onto his butt right in front of Smellerbee who had just cut through the wall of ice.

Using the distraction Katara managed to regain a more steady footing, but before she could counterattack an explosion pulled her attention away from the fight and towards where it occurred. When she realized that it came from the cliff where Sokka was fighting she began to worry whether anything had happened to him and she therefore almost didn't notice that Smellerbee and Pipsqueak was closing in on her.

She managed to notice at the last second and ducked under Pipsqueak's attempt to grab her only to be forced to roll to the side to prevent her legs from being skewered on Smellerbee's blades. The roll ended with her laying the stream where she quickly bended to globs of water at her opponent's knocking Pipsqueak back a step while Smellerbee was knocked to the ground.

She then used waterbending to form a wave beneath her to held her quickly stand up before once more blowing her icy breath at the two causing ice to coat them. However the layer that covered pipsqueak was to thin and he just shook his body slightly to cause it to break of, before bending down and freeing Smellerbee from her ice. Still it managed to distract them long enough for Katara to return to the shore on the opposite side of the stream where she would have a more stable footing.

Before she could start attacking the two others she had to twist and turn to avoid some throwing knifes flying at her head, shoulder and stomach. She managed to completely avoid the first two knife while the third only managed to create a tear in her dress. She then rose a wave of water up in front of her in order to block another three knifes thrown by Smellerbee. She then expelled the wave at her opponents, but Pipsqueak managed to block most of the force with his log.

"You can't beat us" Smellerbee stated in her raspy voice while glaring at Katara and picking up her swords. "It won't be long before the others beat your brother and your monk boyfriend and come to help us"

"Yeah, Jet won't have any trouble finding us once he's finished with the other" Pipsqueak agreed while holding the log protectively in front of him.

"I don't feel like I've been beat" A voice from a tree behind Katara stated, causing all three people to turn around an see Sokka coming around the tree. Only Katara stood at the right angle to see the Duke and Longshot bound together laying behind the tree.

"Don't know how you managed to get away from Longshot" Smellerbee stated "But it doesn't really matter, we'll just take care of both of you."

"Yeah sure, your really convincing seeing as you couldn't even handle Katara when she was on her own" Sokka stated "Now that she has help you won't stand a chance."

Suddenly Katara and Sokka saw two blasts of air coming from behind Pipsqueak, hitting the log and sending it flying out of his hands, as his way of holding it only worked well on attacks coming from the front. Katara and Sokka where forced to duck under the log as it flew straight at them.

"Sorry about that" Aang stated from behind Smellerbee and Pipsqueak, "didn't fly the way I intended it to."

"It's okay Aang." Katara stated "The important thing is that it's out of his hands."

She then raised another wave of water at blasted it at her opponents; While pipsqueak still managed to stay standing Smellerbee was knocked backwards into a three and knocked out cold.

Pipsqueak figured he wouldn't be able to get to the other side of the stream to attack Sokka or Katara (without Katara bending the water to stop him) so instead he turned around and started charging at Aang who started jumping backwards to avoid him. He managed to jump back three times before he accidentally hit a firenation trap which catapulted him into the air in an iron cage. At the same time Pipsqueak stepped onto another one that was right beside it.

Katara and Sokka, who had been following behind the two quickly lowered Aang and freed him from the trap. They also lowered Pipsqueak's cage but only after they had tied up Smellerbee and pulled over Longshot and the Duke. They then lead all of the rebels to the clearing where Aang had left Jet and Sneers hanging. When they reached it they saw Jet and Sneers swinging back and forth trying to make either break the branch or make the rope wear down to the point where it would break.

Aang took one of the throwing knife from Smellerbee and threw it at the rope causing the two to fall to the ground. Before the could get their barrings Aang went over and sat on them. Since they where still tied up their movements where limited enough to not really cause Aang any trouble.

"You're all fools" Jet ground out through his clenched teeth, addressing Aang, Katara and Sokka. "We could've freed this valley!"

"Who would be free" Sokka stated "everyone would be dead."

"You're just traitors" Jet replied, not really being able to mention anyone that would be free.

"No, Jet." Sokka said "You became the traitor when you stopped protecting innocent people."

"Katara. Please" Jet said, changing tactics and trying to manipulate her "help me."

"I doubt she has any desire to help you" Aang stated as he pulled out his bison whistle and blew into it. "You just tried to murder children, not something most people would want to support."

His words had a chilling effect of quite a few of the freedom fighter as they realized what they had actually been part of. They had thought of the villagers as just faceless middle-aged people who had given up the fight and allowed the fire-nation to take over, rather then thinking of them as mothers, fathers and children.

Jet however didn't show any regret, only anger and humiliation at his plan being thwarted.

"Goodbye Jet." Katara stated as Appa landed behind her and she and the other two climbed onto the saddle, leaving Pipsqueak to free the others if he felt like it.

Sokka climbed up to take Appa's reigns and gave them a flick while saying "Yip yip." making Appa take of into the sky.

"Good idea blowing up the explosives" Aang stated after each had shared the story of how they defeated their opponent's "It gave you the edge in the battle and took away their ability to try that plan again anytime soon."

"I didn't even think that far" Sokka admitted "It was pure instinct, I guess. Goes to show that my instincts can be right sometimes" He added.

"Um...Sokka?" Aang said suddenly noticing something about their current course "You know we're going the wrong way, right?"

"Though they're wrong sometimes too." He stated after recovering from his surprise, a grin coming to his face. He then pulled Appa's reigns in order to make it turn around and fly the opposite direction.

* * *

><p>AN<p>

Why I'll stop posting on this site:

Unlike what many may think my main reason for no longer wanting to post on this site isn't because of the mass deletion of stories a couple months ago, though it is a factor. My reason is the way I experienced the mods dealing with the complaints, which to me seemed to be by ignoring their existence. The only official reaction that I saw was them pointing to their TOS and rating system, which for me wasn't enough. First of the description of the rating is so vague that depending on the personal opinions of the mods almost any fic that has a semi detailed battle scene could fall under the MA rating and therefore be deleted ("Detailed descriptions of physical interaction of sexual or violent nature is considered Fiction MA"). The site also hasn't bothered explaining why they don't want to add an MA rating that would either have an additional warning or require an account before it could be read. Without them stating their reasons all anyone can do is make assumptions, and my assumptions is that their just to lazy to make it, just like they don't bother dealing with complaints about stories until it exceed a certain amount.

To clarify: My problem isn't that they deleted stories but the way the seemed to ignore most of the complaints and that they failed to address the underlying issues

The way I see it if I keep posting on this site I will be condoning the fact that they ignore users complaints, which is something I refuse to do. I may be misreading the situation, but it's better to come back to this site after being proven wrong then it is to stay on this site knowing I may be right.

Rewrite:

Since I will have to repost the story on a new site anyway (yourfanfiction is the site I'm planning on reposting the story), I will take the opportunity to rewrite the story at the same time. This means that you shouldn't expect to see the story come up right away, though hopefully it won't be to long. The storyline will mostly remain the same, though some changes will be made to accommodate new cannon information, so most of the changes will be in chapter 1. The rest will be more about trying to find and correct spelling and gramma mistakes. If someone would like to help by beta'ing some chapters feel free to drop me a PM.

Poll:

The poll to chose the last girl in Aangs harem will remain on this site so if you haven't already you voted you can find the poll on my profile.

here...


	11. Thought from Author and Poll explanation

I've been thinking of what to do with my stories since Yourfanfiction closed down.

I could return to this site, upload my rewritten chapter and upload the new one I've written for "Mission Yokai" but in the end I would feel like I was supporting Fudge while he claimed that Voldemort hadn't returned or Scrimgeour while he arrested guilty and innocent alike to be seen 'doing something'. (I'm only comparing smut fiction with Voldemort in so far that both break the rules set for them.)

I could try and find a new site, but those I've come across so far either have a worse layout than yourfanfiction, isn't very user friendly or has a lacking breadth when it comes to catagories (and are slow to add new ones). If you have suggestions for that I would be grateful.

The last option I can think of is to just abandon the stories and maybe (or maybe not) write some Harry Potter ones instead since I already know of a good site for those. All these troubles with the sites I've been posting on have been ruining my writing spirit, first with the move from this site and just as I was getting it back Yourfanfiction shut down, so this option is starting to be more tempting than I like to admit. (if I didn't find honesty so important I wouldn't admit it at all.

Still I'll see what your opinions are by making a poll on my profile with these 2 options:

Write some Harry Potter fiction and tell us where you'll post it

Find another site and re-post your story there

I hope that at least some of those voting for the second option will also write some suggestions in a review as to where I can move it.

For those thinking that I if I feel that the current administrators are like Fudge and Scrimgeour than I should fight them like Harry did I say the following: I do not have the power or the skills needed to lead such and effort, but if someone like that turns up I will be like Seamus, Ron or many of the battlers at Hogwarts and stand with them. Sadly I think most are contend that the purge is over so there is no reason to focus on it anymore, or maybe they are taking a higher path like Naruto and saying forgive and forget (though personally I think that mentallity should be saved for when a real change has occurred).

For people thinking that this is a grudge message I can only ask: What grudge? My stories were never taken down and neither was most of the stories I follow. There where 3 stories, maybe four, of the stories I really liked that were taken down and that isn't enough for me to make Fudge comparisons just to get back at the site.

This message is based upon how I've seen things have been happening and I write it to give people insight into where I'm coming from when I say that I can't return to this site as it currently is. I am aware that what I've seen and what meaning I've given it is based on my own subjective opinion so I might have gotten the wrong impression, but I can't ignore my own observations.

Kind regards

PSaid


	12. Another authors note

I'm sorry to disturb you all again with something that obviously isn't a new chapter, or even me telling you where my story will be moved, but I felt that this was necessary to get past another hurdle.

I got the number of votes I wanted for the poll, along with quite a few suggestions to sites I could move to. Out of all the sites I've been able to limit the number to four site: Ficwad, mediaminer, lunaescence and archiveofourown. Each site has strong and weak points. I will list them as I see them, however it might be a good idea to check them out yourself as different people have different perceptions.

Ficwad:

Pros:Good community along with pm, review and rating possibilities for the users to make their opinion known

Cons: Limited search function, no way to sort stories properly and one bad rating can potentially burry a good story before it is seen by anyone else.

Media miner:

Pros: Easy to work with, some decent sorting methods and a featured story section.

Cons: Limited ways to comment on a story and is search lacking for people who look for specific pairings and no rating system.

Lunaecence:

Pros: Nice layout, good sorting methods, ability to review a story, a featured story section and a decent search system.

Cons: Double catagories in the search can at time be confusing (Yuri and femslash are mostly the same thing to my knowledge for example), no specific pm system and I'm not sure whether I can live up to the writing standards they say they have.

Archiveofourown:

Pros: Decent search system, good sorting possibility, review possibility and Kodus (like?) system

Cons: I have to get invited to be able to post there and no pm ability.

Despite their flaws all of these sites are sites that I could see myself posting on, however I cannot decide which one to move to, so instead I will post another poll to have you decide where you would like to see it, since I felt that it would allow me to choose a site that my readers would actually want to follow me to. The poll will close the 31st of may, after which I will try to begin reposting the story on the chosen site (The chosen site will be put both on my profile and in the story summary).

I look forward to seeing the results

Kind regards

PSaid


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